diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 6c2f1a566..3d37746d1 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,34 @@
+41.rc
+=====
+* Optimize rendering of fullscreen zoom [Daniel; !1899]
+* Fix glitchy launch animations when leaving overview [Daniel; !1440]
+* Show low priority notifications only in message list [Florian; #4265]
+* Support Soup 3 instead of 2.4 [Florian; !1940, !1966]
+* Set log domain for extensions that use console.log() [Evan; !1958]
+* Fix wrong separator position in dash [Raghuveer; !1804]
+* Fix OSK not registering button presses on X11 [Sebastian; !1955]
+* Fix work area getting messed up by hidden panels [Florian; #4569]
+* Fix IM candidate popover position [Florian; #4593]
+* Restrict callers of private D-Bus APIs [Florian; !1970]
+* Support committing preedit string on focus loss [Carlos; !1929]
+* Misc. bug fixes and cleanups [Florian, Ivan, Sebastian, José, Robert; !1956,
+  !1949, !1937, !1961, !1962, !1871, !1964, !1946, !1957, !1959, !1879, !1968]
+
+Contributors:
+  José Expósito, Carlos Garnacho, Raghuveer Kasaraneni, Sebastian Keller,
+  Robert Mader, Ivan Molodetskikh, Florian Müllner, Daniel van Vugt, Evan Welsh
+
+Translators:
+  Yuri Chornoivan [uk], Quentin PAGÈS [oc], Asier Sarasua Garmendia [eu],
+  Hugo Carvalho [pt], Rafael Fontenelle [pt_BR], Jordi Mas [ca],
+  Alexey Rubtsov [ru], Danial Behzadi [fa], Kukuh Syafaat [id],
+  Marek Černocký [cs], Fran Dieguez [gl], Daniel Mustieles [es],
+  Źmicier Turok [be], Jiri Grönroos [fi], Emin Tufan Çetin [tr],
+  Baurzhan Muftakhidinov [kk], Bruce Cowan [en_GB], Philipp Kiemle [de],
+  Matej Urbančič [sl], Dušan Kazik [sk], Charles Monzat [fr],
+  Luna Jernberg [sv], Aurimas Černius [lt], Boyuan Yang [zh_CN],
+  Changwoo Ryu [ko]
+
 41.beta
 =======
 * Unbreak Xwayland apps when not using systemd in user session [Olivier; !1850]
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index b9c7ef750..7062e7d10 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('gnome-shell', 'c',
-  version: '41.beta',
+  version: '41.rc',
   meson_version: '>= 0.53.0',
   license: 'GPLv2+'
 )
diff --git a/subprojects/extensions-app/data/metainfo/org.gnome.Extensions.metainfo.xml.in b/subprojects/extensions-app/data/metainfo/org.gnome.Extensions.metainfo.xml.in
index 7d6252410..92b242624 100644
--- a/subprojects/extensions-app/data/metainfo/org.gnome.Extensions.metainfo.xml.in
+++ b/subprojects/extensions-app/data/metainfo/org.gnome.Extensions.metainfo.xml.in
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
   </description>
 
   <releases>
+    <release version="41.rc" type="development" date="2021-09-04"/>
     <release version="41.beta" type="development" date="2021-08-18"/>
     <release version="41.alpha" type="development" date="2021-05-13"/>
   </releases>
diff --git a/subprojects/extensions-app/meson.build b/subprojects/extensions-app/meson.build
index da539ed04..0bd6bc97c 100644
--- a/subprojects/extensions-app/meson.build
+++ b/subprojects/extensions-app/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('gnome-extensions-app',
-  version: '41.beta',
+  version: '41.rc',
   meson_version: '>= 0.53.0',
   license: 'GPLv2+'
 )
diff --git a/subprojects/extensions-tool/meson.build b/subprojects/extensions-tool/meson.build
index 2fd031d50..1e66f740e 100644
--- a/subprojects/extensions-tool/meson.build
+++ b/subprojects/extensions-tool/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('gnome-extensions-tool', 'c',
-  version: '41.beta',
+  version: '41.rc',
   meson_version: '>= 0.53.0',
   license: 'GPLv2+'
 )
diff --git a/subprojects/shew/meson.build b/subprojects/shew/meson.build
index 84bc8d11f..6d8681d60 100644
--- a/subprojects/shew/meson.build
+++ b/subprojects/shew/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('shew', 'c',
-  version: '41.beta',
+  version: '41.rc',
   meson_version: '>= 0.53.0',
   license: 'LGPLv2+',
 )