diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index f9f6e36..a66e2c8 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
 	chmod -R a-s $(distdir)
 
 
-tar_file = $(PACKAGE_TARNAME)-$(VERSION).tar.bz2
+tar_file = $(PACKAGE_TARNAME)-$(VERSION).tar.xz
 sha256_file = $(tar_file).sha256
 gpg_file = $(sha256_file).asc
 $(sha256_file): $(tar_file)
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index f3e424f..752ebf7 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+Overview of changes leading to 2.5.0
+Friday, May 24, 2019
+====================================
+- This release does not include much functional changes, but includes major internal
+  code-base changes.  We now require C++11.  Support for gcc 4.8 and earlier has been
+  dropped.
+- New hb-config.hh facility for compiling smaller library for embedded and web usecases.
+- New Unicode Character Databse implementation that is half the size of previously-used
+  UCDN.
+- Subsetter improvements.
+- Improved documentation, thanks to Nathan Willis.
+- Misc shaping fixes.
+
+
 Overview of changes leading to 2.4.0
 Monday, March 25, 2019
 ====================================
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index e835f49..e53928a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 AC_PREREQ([2.64])
 AC_INIT([HarfBuzz],
-        [2.4.0],
+        [2.5.0],
         [https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/issues/new],
         [harfbuzz],
         [http://harfbuzz.org/])
diff --git a/src/hb-version.h b/src/hb-version.h
index 783e37b..ec6e67e 100644
--- a/src/hb-version.h
+++ b/src/hb-version.h
@@ -37,10 +37,10 @@
 
 
 #define HB_VERSION_MAJOR 2
-#define HB_VERSION_MINOR 4
+#define HB_VERSION_MINOR 5
 #define HB_VERSION_MICRO 0
 
-#define HB_VERSION_STRING "2.4.0"
+#define HB_VERSION_STRING "2.5.0"
 
 #define HB_VERSION_ATLEAST(major,minor,micro) \
 	((major)*10000+(minor)*100+(micro) <= \