The release of ansible-core 2.16 beta 1 is delayed. so as the Ansible Release 9.0.0 Alpha1 (which was due release today). ansible-core is expected to release today. Here are two dates in consideration for Ansible 9.0.0 Alpha1 release
2023/09/28 - Giving us a day buffer after the expected ansible-core release today.
2023/10/03 - Maintaining the Tuesday release cadence.
We are going to discuss about it on Ansible Community WG meeting tomorrow at 19:00 UTC in the Matrix Room : #community:ansible.com.