Python This Week — August 3, 2026: Release Candidate Eve for Python 3.15
Python 3.15's beta phase has closed and release candidate 1 lands August 4. Plus: the PSF opens a 2026 grants round, CPython's JIT stays on its six-month clock, Django ships security fixes, and FastAPI refactors its router internals.
A relatively quiet week in Python land, but a consequential one: the beta cycle for Python 3.15 has closed and the first release candidate lands tomorrow, while the Python Software Foundation opens a fresh grants round. Here is what mattered in the past week.
Python 3.15 reaches the release-candidate stage
With beta 4 shipped from the EuroPython sprints on July 18, the beta phase is over and Python 3.15.0rc1 is scheduled for August 4, 2026, per the official release schedule. The release candidate marks the point where the feature set is locked and the focus shifts to stabilization ahead of the planned final release in October. Highlights lined up for 3.15 include a new lazy-import system, a built-in sampling profiler, and a stable ABI for free-threaded builds. source
The Python Software Foundation opens a 2026 grants round
The PSF announced a 2026 Grants Program funding round with a capped budget of $90,000, aimed at Python conferences and workshops — including PyLadies and DjangoGirls events — taking place between December 1, 2026 and April 30, 2027. Applications are accepted from August 4 to August 25 (Anywhere on Earth). The foundation was candid that this is a scoped, sustainable offering rather than a full reopening of the program. source
CPython's JIT is still on a six-month clock
The story that has hung over core development this summer continues: the Steering Council froze new work on CPython's experimental JIT compiler and asked the project to produce an accepted standards-track PEP or see the code removed from the main branch. The JIT arrived in Python 3.13 as an off-by-default feature backed only by the informational PEP 744, and the Council wants a proper process, clear success metrics, and a maintenance plan before it stays. source
Django ships security releases 6.0.7 and 5.2.16
Earlier in the cycle (July 7), the Django team issued security releases 6.0.7 and 5.2.16 addressing three CVEs, including a cache-poisoning issue affecting responses that set cookies, a heap buffer over-read in GDALRaster, and a header-injection path in domain-name validation. If you are running Django in production, upgrading remains the recommended action. source
FastAPI refactors its router internals
On the framework side, FastAPI landed a refactor of its router internals that preserves APIRouter and APIRoute instances, allows adding routes after inclusion, and opens the door to custom router behavior — a plumbing change that should make advanced routing patterns cleaner without breaking existing apps. source
That is the week — see you next time, and keep an eye out for 3.15.0rc1.
