diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 8338b536..6a1489b0 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -5,6 +5,17 @@ You can see the complete list of recent changes, bugfixes and new features
 in the https://github.com/rkd77/felinks.git[gitweb interface]. See the ChangeLog
 file for details.
 
+ELinks 0.16.0rc1
+----------------
+
+Released on 2022-12-03
+
+* alternative mujs engine for js
+* bump mozjs to 102
+* experimental XHR implementation
+* macros in exmode #196
+* removed infinite loop, which occurred under BSD #197
+* optional terminal hyperlinks in dumps #198
 
 ELinks 0.15.1
 -------------
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index b00bf12d..85b7a209 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(config)
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([config/m4])
 
 PACKAGE=elinks
-VERSION=0.16.GIT
+VERSION=0.16.0rc1
 AC_SUBST(PACKAGE)
 AC_SUBST(VERSION)
 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(PACKAGE, "$PACKAGE", [Package version])
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 4f284ed6..912d59ce 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-project('elinks', ['c','cpp'], version:'0.16.GIT', license:'GPLv2', default_options:['cpp_std=gnu++17'])
+project('elinks', ['c','cpp'], version:'0.16.0rc1', license:'GPLv2', default_options:['cpp_std=gnu++17'])
 srcs=[]
 
 srcdir = meson.source_root()