diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 914d418d..2bee07c6 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ release:
 
 sign-release:
 	 +(set -e; \
-	  cd dist; \
+	  test $$(pwd | sed 's,.*/,,') = dist || cd dist; \
 	  x=$$(grep '^RELEASE_ARCHIVE=' $$HOME/.gnupg-autogen.rc|cut -d= -f2);\
           if [ -z "$$x" ]; then \
              echo "error: RELEASE_ARCHIVE missing in ~/.gnupg-autogen.rc">&2; \
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index c42c5fa2..87ae6ab5 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-Noteworthy changes in version 1.16.1 (unreleased)
+Noteworthy changes in version 1.17.0 (2022-02-07)
 -------------------------------------------------
 
  * New context flag "key-origin".  [#5733]
@@ -12,6 +12,22 @@ Noteworthy changes in version 1.16.1 (unreleased)
  * New function gpgme_op_receive_keys to import keys from a keyserver
    without first running a key listing.  [#5808]
 
+ * Detect bad passphrase error in certificate import.  [T5713]
+
+ * Allow setting --key-origin when importing keys.  [T5733]
+
+ * Support components "keyboxd", "gpg-agent", "scdaemon", "dirmngr",
+   "pinentry", and "socketdir" in gpgme_get_dirinfo.  [T5727,T5613]
+
+ * Under Unix use poll(2) instead of select(2), when available.
+   [T2385]
+
+ * Do not use --flat_namespace when linking for macOS.  [T5610]
+
+ * Fix results returned by gpgme_data_* functions.  [T5481]
+
+ * Support closefrom also for glibc.  [rM4b64774b6d]
+
  * cpp,qt: Add support for export of secret keys and secret subkeys.
    [#5757]
 
@@ -20,6 +36,10 @@ Noteworthy changes in version 1.16.1 (unreleased)
  * qt: Extend ChangeExpiryJob to change expiration of primary key
    and of subkeys at the same time. [#4717]
 
+ * qt: Expect UTF-8 on stderr on Windows.  [rM8fe1546282]
+
+ * qt: Allow retrieving the default value of a config entry.  [T5515]
+
  * Interface changes relative to the 1.16.0 release:
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  gpgme_op_receive_keys                      NEW.
@@ -43,6 +63,11 @@ Noteworthy changes in version 1.16.1 (unreleased)
  qt: AddExistingSubkeyJob                   NEW.
  qt: Protocol::addExistingSubkeyJob         NEW.
 
+ [c=C37/A26/R0 cpp=C20/A14/R0 qt=C14/A7/R0]
+
+ Release-info: https://dev.gnupg.org/T5819
+
+
 Noteworthy changes in version 1.16.0 (2021-06-24)
 -------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 5c4be562..80ce79c8 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ min_automake_version="1.14"
 # for the LT versions.
 m4_define([mym4_package],[gpgme])
 m4_define([mym4_major], [1])
-m4_define([mym4_minor], [16])
-m4_define([mym4_micro], [1])
+m4_define([mym4_minor], [17])
+m4_define([mym4_micro], [0])
 
 # Below is m4 magic to extract and compute the git revision number,
 # the decimalized short revision number, a beta version string and a
@@ -53,19 +53,19 @@ AC_INIT([mym4_package],[mym4_version],[https://bugs.gnupg.org])
 #   (Interfaces added:			AGE++)
 #   (Interfaces removed:		AGE=0)
 #
-LIBGPGME_LT_CURRENT=36
-LIBGPGME_LT_AGE=25
+LIBGPGME_LT_CURRENT=37
+LIBGPGME_LT_AGE=26
 LIBGPGME_LT_REVISION=0
 
 # If there is an ABI break in gpgmepp or qgpgme also bump the
 # version in IMPORTED_LOCATION in the GpgmeppConfig-w32.cmake.in.in
 
-LIBGPGMEPP_LT_CURRENT=19
-LIBGPGMEPP_LT_AGE=13
+LIBGPGMEPP_LT_CURRENT=20
+LIBGPGMEPP_LT_AGE=14
 LIBGPGMEPP_LT_REVISION=0
 
-LIBQGPGME_LT_CURRENT=13
-LIBQGPGME_LT_AGE=6
+LIBQGPGME_LT_CURRENT=14
+LIBQGPGME_LT_AGE=7
 LIBQGPGME_LT_REVISION=0
 ################################################