* Fix false positive "meaningful conflict" detection for strategic merge patch with integer values. ([#44788](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/44788), [@enisoc](https://github.com/enisoc))
* Fix insufficient permissions to read/write volumes when mounting them with a subPath. ([#43775](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/43775), [@wongma7](https://github.com/wongma7))

* A new client `k8s.io/client-go/metadata.Client` has been added for accessing objects generically. This client makes it easier to retrieve only the metadata (the `metadata` sub-section) from resources on the cluster in an efficient manner for use cases that deal with objects generically, like the garbage collector, quota, or the namespace controller. The client asks the server to return a `meta.k8s.io/v1 PartialObjectMetadata` object for list, get, delete, watch, and patch...