don't depend on __debug__ because it's baked in at freeze time (issue #16046)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index baa9fcd..6922b25 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #16046: Fix loading sourceless legacy .pyo files.
+
 Library
 -------