Pep Guardiola reveals why Manchester City lost out to Arsenal in the race for Declan Rice last summer

New research has shown that our early ancestors almost went extinct some 900,000 years ago. Using a new method called FitCoal (fast infinitesimal time coalescent process), researchers analysed the likelihood of present-day genome sequences to project current human genomic variation backwards in time. They applied the technique to the genomes of 3,154 people from 10 African and 40 non-African populations, and found a massive crash in genetic diversity during the transition between the early and middle Pleistocene. “Results showed that human ancestors went through a severe population bottleneck with about 1,280 breeding individuals between around 930,000 and 813,000 years ago,” the study authors wrote in the journal Science. “The bottleneck lasted for about 117,000 years and brought human ancestors close to extinction,” they say. Wiping out roughly 98.7 percent of the ancestral human population, “the bottleneck could also have increased the inbreeding level of our ancestors, thus contributing to the 65.85 percent loss in present-day human genetic diversity,” explained the researchers. This probably happened because of changes in the global climate as short-term glaciations became longer-lasting, triggering a drop in ocean temperatures, prolonged drought, and the loss of large numbers of species that humans might have relied on for food. Then, around 813,000 years ago, populations finally recovered, with a 20-fold increase in numbers because of fire combined with the return of warmer temperatures, researchers reckon. What a near miss, eh? Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Europe does well in the Ryder Cup even before the matches get going

Gabe Hostin is interning in Portugal and having the best time as he was recently spotted jumping in the ocean while flaunting his chiseled six-pack abs

Comedian Matt Rife's new Netflix special faces backlash due to his controversial joke about a restaurant server with a 'black eye'

West Ham United could make a move for Guilherme Arana during the January transfer window. West Ham, Brentford and Wolves all had representatives present to watch Arana during Brazil's 1-1 draw with Venezuela this week.

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Paul Finebaum was thrilled when Charles Barkley called Skip Bayless an idiot.

Auston Matthews scored his seventh goal of the season, Joseph Woll made 36 saves and the Toronto Maple Leaf beat the Washington Capitals 4-1

Defender Lucy Bronze admitted England “are not happy” with their World Cup performances so far but vowed the Lionesses will step up in Saturday’s quarter-final against Colombia. The European champions crushed China 6-1 in their third group-stage contest, but that match remains an outlier in a tournament that has otherwise seen them score just one other goal from open play. That winning strike came against Denmark from Lauren James, who will miss the Lionesses’ last-eight encounter while she serves at minimum a one-game suspension after she was sent off in Monday night’s last-16 victory over Nigeria. “We can give more,” vowed Bronze. “We’re a fantastic team with highly-talented players, but the important thing is we got through to the next round. “There’s no point in playing our best performances in the first games, we might as well save them for the quarter-finals or further than that. “We’ve built on every game, we’ve taken something from every game, whether that was the Haiti game that was physical, the Denmark game when we lost our key player in Keira [Walsh], the China game we changed the formation completely, [Monday] we had a red card. “Everything that has been thrown at us, we’ve dealt with and moved forward. “I don’t see many other teams who’ve had that adversity and if they had, I don’t think they’ve managed to overcome the way we have. At the same time, we are not happy with our performances.” The 2023 tournament, expanded to 32 teams for the first time, has already provided host of dramatic and often surprising results. Double defending champions the United States were denied a shot at an history-making ‘three-peat’ after they were eliminated in the last 16 following a penalty shoot-out with Sweden, who are set to play Japan on Friday in one of the most anticipated quarter-final clashes. That followed a group stage that saw three top-10 sides in Canada, Brazil and Germany ousted and nations far lower down FIFA’s world rankings advance, results that have largely been celebrated as evidence of progress in the women’s game and setting up the most unpredictable finals in the competition’s 32-year history. World number four England, who have never reached a World Cup final, have so far managed to survive in the face of adversity. Before kick-off against Nigeria, the name on everyone’s lips was Walsh, who was carried off the pitch on a stretcher in England’s second group-stage contest with what many feared was a tournament-ending injury, but made a stunning return on Monday night. Yet 120 minutes later, when Walsh began to feel a cramp and was replaced by Manchester United skipper Katie Zelem, it was clear James would be the player in the headlines after she was shown a straight red for stepping on the back of Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie, forcing her team-mates to doggedly battle through extra-time short-handed. The incident resulted in an automatic one-game suspension for James, though, there is a good chance the 21-year-old’s punishment could be extended to three games, which would include the World Cup final on August 20. The decision to extend the ban will come from FIFA’s disciplinary committee, who could make the decision after the Colombia contest. Chelsea forward James, who has since apologised on Twitter, had already contributed three goals and three assists in the group stage so she will be sorely missed for the Lionesses. “All we can do is go back to training and make sure we are focused on the job at hand. The most important thing is that we’re coming out of games with wins,” Bronze added. “I think I said that after the Haiti game, and some people thought that was not probably what they wanted. However, we’re the ones who are still in the competition and there’s many top teams who are going home because they haven’t been able to get that point or been able to see the games out in the penalty shoot-out and we have. “We’ve shown that side of our team that we know what it takes to win.”

Nestled in the sand dunes an hour’s drive from the skyscrapers of Dubai, a desert village abandoned in the 1990s stands as an eerie relic of the rapid urbanization of the United Arab Emirates

Around Scotland's Loch Ness, famous for hosting a mythical monster in its murky depths, another prolonged dry spell earlier this year has heightened...