Neanderthal DNA was much more similar to human DNA than to chimpanzee DNA not “halfway between”.

A lie does not become truth via repetition.

".....He said his team ran four separate tests for authenticity - checking whether other amino acids had survived, making sure the DNA sequences they found did not exist in modern humans, making sure the DNA could be replicated in their own lab and then getting other labs to duplicate their results. Comparisons with the DNA of modern humans and of apes showed the Neanderthal was

about halfway between a modern human and a chimpanzee."

Well a difference of 2% between Humans and Chimps and 0.5% between Humans and Neanders is more accurately characterized as being 3/4 between human and chimpanzee tending towards human - but if you prefer a journalists characterization to actual knowledge and a more accurate assessment - have at it.

The same guy who did the work that your cite (Dr. Paabo) characterized as “halfway” is also the guy who says that 1-4% of the human genome (of non-Africans) is from Neanders. And he characterized Neanders - not as halfway chimp - but as mostly human - as you can read below.

The % difference in genetic and genomic DNAis perfectly compatible with Humans and Neanders having a MRCA (most recent common ancestor) about HALF a million years ago and Humans and Chimps having a MRCA some six million years ago.

“Svante Paabo, the pioneer of palaeogenetics, equivocated when a reporter asked whether his genome study suggested Neanderthals are the same species as us: “I would more see them as a form of humans that were a bit more different than people are from each other today, but not that much.”
Why so shy? Putting aside the vexing question of what defines a species - which flummoxed even Linnaeus and Darwin - it is hard to see why Neanderthals should now be considered as anything other than Homo sapiens. We know that Neanderthals bred with our ancestors and produced fertile offspring, which is one hallmark of a species. And there is plenty more evidence to support giving them the status of Homo sapiens neanderthalis. Neanderthals shared a common ancestor with modern humans around 500,000 years ago. Its descendants went their separate ways as the Neanderthals adapted to colder climes, but then, at least 50,000 years ago, they resumed relations in the eastern Mediterranean, where the two populations met again. This pattern wouldn't necessarily merit separate species status for most animals, so why for us and Neanderthals?”

But even if your numbers were accurate and Neanders were more like 99% identical in genetic DNA rather than 99.5% - (compared to 98% for Chimps - thus “halfway between”) - mixing in 1 to 4% of something 99% the same is still NOT going to add up to a “huge” genetic difference.

I remain amazed that you continue to regurgitate that nonsense about “halfway between human and chimp”, but at least you link to the source — a half-assed ESL tabloid in India.