diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew23.tex b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew23.tex
index b1e9713..c3b8e8f 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew23.tex
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew23.tex
@@ -896,6 +896,13 @@
 <type '_socket.socket'>
 \end{verbatim}
 
+\item One of the noted incompatibilities between old- and new-style
+  classes has been removed: you can now assign to the
+  \member{__name__} and \member{__bases__} attributes of new-style
+  classes.  There are some restrictions on what can be assigned to
+  \member{__bases__} along the lines of those relating to assigning to
+  an instance's \member{__class__} attribute.
+
 \end{itemize}
 
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 4b38794..a5190c7 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 Type/class unification and new-style classes
 --------------------------------------------
 
+- One can now assign to __bases__ and __name__ of new-style classes.
+
 - dict() now accepts keyword arguments so that dict(one=1, two=2)
   is the equivalent of {"one": 1, "two": 2}.  Accordingly,
   the existing (but undocumented) 'items' keyword argument has