--- a/etc/NEWS.8	Wed Dec 08 14:53:22 2021 +0900
+++ /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
@@ -1,47 +0,0 @@
-Summary of important user-visible changes for version 8 (yyyy-mm-dd):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-### General improvements
-
-
-### Graphical User Interface
-
-
-### Graphics backend
-
-
-### Matlab compatibility
-
-
-### Alphabetical list of new functions added in Octave 8
-
-
-### Deprecated functions, properties, and operators
-
-The following functions and properties have been deprecated in Octave 8
-and will be removed from Octave 10 (or whatever version is the second
-major release after 8):
-
-
-The following functions were deprecated in Octave 6 and have been removed
-from Octave 8.
-
-- Functions
-
-  Function               | Replacement
-  -----------------------|------------------
-  `runtests`             | `oruntests`
-
-- The environment variable used by `mkoctfile` for linker flags is now
-  `LDFLAGS` rather than `LFLAGS`.  `LFLAGS` was deprecated in Octave 6,
-  and will be removed in a future version of Octave.
-
-### Old release news
-
-- [Octave 7.x](etc/NEWS.7)
-- [Octave 6.x](etc/NEWS.6)
-- [Octave 5.x](etc/NEWS.5)
-- [Octave 4.x](etc/NEWS.4)
-- [Octave 3.x](etc/NEWS.3)
-- [Octave 2.x](etc/NEWS.2)
-- [Octave 1.x](etc/NEWS.1)

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/etc/NEWS.8.md	Wed Dec 08 14:55:53 2021 +0900
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+Summary of important user-visible changes for version 8 (yyyy-mm-dd):
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+### General improvements
+
+
+### Graphical User Interface
+
+
+### Graphics backend
+
+
+### Matlab compatibility
+
+
+### Alphabetical list of new functions added in Octave 8
+
+
+### Deprecated functions, properties, and operators
+
+The following functions and properties have been deprecated in Octave 8
+and will be removed from Octave 10 (or whatever version is the second
+major release after 8):
+
+
+The following functions were deprecated in Octave 6 and have been removed
+from Octave 8.
+
+- Functions
+
+  Function               | Replacement
+  -----------------------|------------------
+  `runtests`             | `oruntests`
+
+- The environment variable used by `mkoctfile` for linker flags is now
+  `LDFLAGS` rather than `LFLAGS`.  `LFLAGS` was deprecated in Octave 6,
+  and will be removed in a future version of Octave.
+
+### Old release news
+
+- [Octave 7.x](etc/NEWS.7)
+- [Octave 6.x](etc/NEWS.6)
+- [Octave 5.x](etc/NEWS.5)
+- [Octave 4.x](etc/NEWS.4)
+- [Octave 3.x](etc/NEWS.3)
+- [Octave 2.x](etc/NEWS.2)
+- [Octave 1.x](etc/NEWS.1)