diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 591eb8bb9..c11e266ba 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -92,6 +92,13 @@ These replace the wonky "bit-set*!" procedure.
 Previously statprof would show strings like "anon #x1234" for primitives
 written in C.
 
+** Compiler reduces 'equal?' when passed a character literal
+
+The compiler now properly reduces expressions such as (equal? c #\x) to
+(eq? c #\x).  This was not the case in 3.0.2, which could lead to slower
+code, especially in 'match' expressions with many clauses with with
+character literals.
+
 ** JIT bugs on ARMv7 have been fixed
    (<https://bugs.gnu.org/40737>,
     <https://gitlab.com/wingo/lightening/-/issues/12>)