diff --git a/NEWS.rst b/NEWS.rst
index 9a353d83b..0a0108554 100644
--- a/NEWS.rst
+++ b/NEWS.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+- [instancer] When optimizing HVAR/VVAR VarStore, use_NO_VARIATION_INDEX=False to avoid
+  including NO_VARIATION_INDEX in AdvWidthMap, RsbMap, LsbMap mappings, which would
+  push the VarIdx width to maximum (4bytes), which is not desirable. This also fixes
+  a hard crash when attempting to subset a varfont after it had been partially instanced
+  with use_NO_VARIATION_INDEX=True.
+
 4.34.0 (released 2022-07-06)
 ----------------------------