- Fixed bug that caused a resource to include patch directives when using strategic merge patch against a non-existent field. ([#117568](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117568), [@alexzielenski](https://github.com/alexzielenski))

- Added new option to the `InterPodAffinity` scheduler plugin to ignore existing
  pods` preferred inter-pod affinities if the incoming pod has no preferred inter-pod
  affinities. This option can be used as an optimization for higher scheduling throughput
  (at the cost of an occasional pod being scheduled non-optimally/violating existing
  pods preferred inter-pod affinities). To enable this scheduler option, set the

* Add --no-negcache flag to kube-dns to prevent caching of NXDOMAIN responses. ([#66036](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/66036), [@prameshj](https://github.com/prameshj))
* fix data loss issue if using existing azure disk with partitions in disk mount  ([#63270](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63270), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))

   ([#123372](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/123372), [@carl...

### API Change

- The Kubernetes API server now correctly detects and closes existing TLS connections when its client certificate file for kubelet authentication has been rotated. ([#115566](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115566), [@enj](https://github.com/enj)) [SIG API Machinery, Node and Testing]