automake 1.17 release plan?

Hello,
end of 2023 you shared the news that automake release 1.17 could happen 
soon. There has been no public communication for the last couple of 
weeks. This is sad, as I would appreciate to get all the improvements 
and bug fixes into my projects.
What are your plans regarding 1.17? Are there blockers? Is there 
anything we as the community can help?

Kind regards,
Christoph