OK, thanks to a lot of hard work by many of you, I think we are ready to start the manufacturing of 3.7.2rc1 and 3.6.8rc1.
For the 3.7 branch, as usual feel free to continue to merge the usual changes appropriate for a bugfix branch; unless otherwise marked and agreed on as a release blocker for 3.7.2 final, any new 3.7 merges will be released in 3.7.3.
For the 3.6 branch, as announced 3.6.8 is planned to be the last bugfix release for the 3.6 series; future 3.6.x releases will be as needed and contain only security fixes and source only. Of course, if any release blocker regressions show up after 3.6.8rc1, we will consider merging fixes for them. This means that, as of now, the 3.6 branch is no longer open to normal bugfixes, only security fixes and release blocker regressions fixes and only with the approval of the release manager. Therefore, as we have done with previous branches moving to security-fix mode, merges to the 3.6 branch on the cpython GitHub repo are now restricted to the release managers. If you feel a change to 3.6 is needed either because it is a release blocker regression in 3.6.8 or because it is a security issue, please ensure there is a bpo issue describing the problem, mark it as release blocker priority, and submit the necessary PR. At some point, on or after the 3.6.8 release, we will be going through the open 3.6 PRs, open PRs with the needs backport to 3.6 label, and bpo issues marked for 3.6 and updating or closing them as needed. Please do not mark new PRs with the needs backport to 3.6 label unless you feel the proposed change meets one of the criteria above.
Thanks for your help!