The driver of the car was taken to hospital for an injury to his arm which is not believed to be life threatening

A man has been shot by an armed police officer after ‘failing to stop and driving directly at police’, Greater Manchester Police have said

Police attempted to stop a vehicle on Bury New Road in Whitefield, Bury, at 3pm on Friday, May 22. The car failed to stop and ‘drove directly’ at officers in an attempt to get away, the force said.

In response, a shot was fired by a GMP firearms officer, a spokesperson for GMP has said.

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The driver of the car was taken to hospital for an injury to his arm, which has been described as neither life-threatening nor life changing. No police officers were injured in the incident.

Investigations are ongoing and a scene remains in place on Bury New Road.

The force said that a 20-year-old white British man has since been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.

The incident is not being treated as terror related and has ‘no relevance’ to the Manchester Arena bombing anniversary. It is understood the reason for initial attempts to stop the vehicle were ‘unrelated to the local area’. GMP has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) as per standard procedure.

Detective Superintendent Joe Harrop from GMP’s Serious Crime Division said: “We know people in the area will be concerned by what has happened and the visible increase in police officers in the local area as our investigations continue.

“Thankfully no members of the wider public, or officers were harmed in the incident this afternoon and we thank people for their patience while we remain at the scene.

“Should anyone have any concerns, please speak with our officers who are out in the local area, they are there to listen and assist where possible.”

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: “At 3pm today (Friday 22 May 2026), we attempted to stop a vehicle on Bury New Road in Whitefield, Bury.

“The car failed to stop and drove directly at our officers to get away.

“In response, a shot was fired by a GMP firearms officer. The driver of the car was taken to hospital for an injury to his arm, which has been described as neither life-threatening nor life changing. No police officers were injured in the incident.

“Investigations are ongoing.

“A 20-year-old white British man has been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.”

Diana Henry is the Telegraph’s much-loved cookery writer. She shares recipes each week, for everything from speedy family dinners to special menus that friends will remember for months. She is also a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, and her journalism and recipe books, including Simple and How to Eat a Peach, are multi-award-winning. A mother of two sons, Diana can satisfy even the fussiest of eaters.   

Councillor Robert Hutchinson was officially sworn in as Mayor of Sunderland on Wednesday, May 20, taking over the chains of office from Councillor Ehthesham Haque.

Councillor Glenda Hall was also sworn in during the ceremony and will serve alongside him as Mayoress.

Cllr Hutchinson, who represents the Farringdon and Silksworth ward, said: “In Sunderland, we have a beautiful coastline, great heritage, and above all, the friendliest people in the world.

“Being Mayor is the honour of my life, and I will not let you down.”

He began his first business, Optic Innovation, at just 17 years old.

Cllr Hutchinson also worked with the late Geoff Docherty, who brought major bands to Sunderland in the 1960s and 70s.

He is a member of the Sunderland Antiquarian Society and was elected to Sunderland City Council earlier this month.

Cllr Hall, who represents the Tunstall and Humbledon ward, was also elected to the council in May.

Cllr Hutchinson and Cllr Hall will select Wearside charities to support during their year in office.

Southwick ward councillor Jannine Morrow was sworn in as Deputy Mayor for 2026-2027, alongside her husband Mr George Morrow, who will serve as Deputy Consort.

Cllr Morrow is a retired Customer Services Officer who previously worked for Durham County Council.

Cllr Haque, the outgoing Mayor, reflected on his year in office and wished his successor well.

He said: “It has been the honour and privilege of my life to serve as the Mayor of this great and ancient city.

“I have had the great privilege of meeting the most incredible people.

“There are so many memorable occasions I will remember forever.

“To mention a few, the opening of the Women’s Rugby World Cup, the opening of the Keel Crossing footbridge, and supporting our military with flag-raising ceremonies and the Remembrance Day parade.

“Unfortunately, it would be impossible to mention every single one, but I can honestly say being Mayor will always be one of the most special times – and the best memories – of my life.

“I’d like to say congratulations to our new Mayor and Deputy Mayor, I wish you both all the best and of course, the same goes to all of our newly elected members.”

During his term, Cllr Haque raised £26,600 for his chosen charities.

Keith Gillespie believes Northern Ireland can “punch above our weight” again and return to tournament football at Euro 2028.

The 86-time capped star admitted it was disappointing that the tournament would not be co-hosted in Belfast, as per the original bid that had a redeveloped Casement Park as one of the venues along with stadiums in Dublin, and across England, Scotland and Wales.

But he insisted that under Michael O’Neill, the team was going in the right direction – and that O’Neill’s decision to turn down a permanent deal at Blackburn was good news for Northern Ireland.

“Fingers crossed,” he told Belfast Live. “We are a small nation so we are not going to qualify for every single major tournament.

“But looking back at (Euro) 2016, qualifying for that, going close in 2020, close again and then obviously the (World Cup) play-offs this time, you want to play in every big tournament.

“I think these players have really improved over the last few years. It’s a young squad and they’ve gained so much experience playing international football.

“That will stand them in good stead coming into qualifying.”

Gillespie, who was speaking at Wembley as BT unveiled a new fan-inspired poem featuring comedian and lifelong football fan Frank Skinner, reflected on Northern Ireland’s recent World Cup woes.

O’Neill’s side clinched a play-off place through the Nations League, but were handed one of the most difficult draws when they were paired away to Italy.

Two second-half goals in Bergamo in March sent the Azzurri through to the play-off decider, where they lost away to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“It was (disappointing),” said Gillespie of the defeat, “but I think you’ve just got to remember that we’re a small nation and it’s very difficult to compete at times against those bigger nations.

“We probably couldn’t have gotten a worse draw for the play-offs, getting Italy.

“I think with the way it is in terms of the way it all works, it favours the bigger nations, as opposed to the smaller nations, because ultimately I think they want the bigger nations there.

“So for us to get Italy away, it’s very difficult when you’ve only got that one game.

“It might have been different if it was played over two legs. But win that game and you were going to play another team away – Bosnia or Wales – so it is always very difficult.

“But looking back we probably shot ourselves in the foot when we conceded in the last minute against Slovakia (in November), because we might have had an easier draw.

“But we are a very young squad, improving all the time, and I think things are looking rosy.

“It’s great news that Michael O’Neill has decided to stay as well, because the job he has done, bringing that young side through, has been remarkable.”

Looking ahead to Euro 2028, a failure to agree funding to redevelop Casement Park cost Northern Ireland co-hosting rights.

Asked if that was a disappointment, Gillespie replied: “Yeah, of course. It just didn’t work out in the end.

“It would have been great if we could have been (co-hosting). It’s something that doesn’t come around all the time, so to be a part of that would have been great for Northern Ireland in a sense to be hosting something like that.

“Unfortunately it didn’t. But that’s just the way it is.”

But with the tournament being played so close to home, he said: “Certainly if Northern Ireland were to qualify they would be travelling in their thousands, without a doubt.”

* BT has become the Official Telecommunications Partner of Euro 2028 and the poem brings together voices from across the UK to capture what football means now. Thirty years on from co-writing Three Lions, Frank Skinner collaborated on the poem using fan responses and insights from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to inspire the final piece

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The world we live in today runs on batteries. But the lithium ion batteries that dominate the market are expensive and environmentally demanding to extract. The raw materials for lithium ion batteries are scarce and concentrated in a few geographical regions. This places continued pressure on supply chains.

Sodium-ion batteries are a promising alternative because they use abundant materials. But sodium has shortcomings that have blocked it from being used as a replacement for lithium.

In work carried out at the University of Limerick’s Bernal Institute, my team has now produced a battery that combines the strengths of sodium and lithium. This could lead to more sustainable batteries that reduce the supply chain pressures associated with lithium. The results have been published in the journal Nano Energy.

Sodium-ion batteries lag behind lithium ones in their energy density. Energy density is the amount of energy stored in a battery relative to its weight or size. Lower battery energy densities have an impact on the devices and machines they power.

If electric vehicles used battery modules with lower energy densities, it would limit the distance they could travel before needing to be recharged. Lowering the energy densities of batteries would also make tablet devices and laptops heavier.

As an energy storage researcher, this paradox gnawed at me. How could we harness sodium’s sustainability without sacrificing performance? The tension feels like the ancient philosophical concept of yin and yang. This idea describes how seemingly opposing forces are actually complementary and connected.

In this case, sodium is abundant but weak, while lithium is powerful but scarce. Inspired by this dichotomy, I wondered whether the two technologies could work in harmony rather than competing.

This led us to produce the first full cell battery with two electrodes – one positive, one negative – that uses two charged atoms or molecules (ions). In this case the charged atoms are sodium and lithium. Batteries that use different positively charged ions to store and transfer energy are known as dual cation batteries.

Why sodium ions fall short

A standard battery is made up of one or more cells. The cell converts chemical energy into electrical energy. In the cell are two electrodes, or terminals: a positive terminal called a cathode and a negative terminal called the anode.

When the battery is used to power an electronic device, negatively charged electrons flow through the circuit and reach the battery’s positive terminal. The chemical medium between the anode and cathode is called the electrolyte.

I decided to combine lithium and sodium in a half cell, which has one electrode immersed in an electrolyte rather than two. Just a modest amount of lithium salt added to a sodium-dominant electrolyte radically changed the way the battery behaved.

It roughly doubled the storage capacity of our half cell compared with an equivalent state-of-the-art sodium based battery. It was also stable up to 1,000 charge-discharge cycles at higher charging currents. Charge-discharge cycles measure how many times a battery can drain from 100% to 0% and recharge to 100% before its capacity degrades.

For someone who had previously watched sodium-ion batteries fade after a few dozen cycles, these results felt like witnessing a miracle.

Behind the scenes, a fascinating chemical ballet between lithium and sodium was taking place. Lithium ions are smaller than sodium ions, so they can move more easily through the anode material. Their movement helps open smoother pathways for sodium, lowering the “diffusion barrier” – resistance at the anode that normally slows sodium batteries down. This allowed more ions to enter the anode, allowing it to store more charge.

Just as importantly, sodium helped prevent lithium from getting trapped inside the material after discharge. This back-and-forth exchange kept the reaction reversible, giving the battery both higher capacity and better cycle stability. In this yin–yang interplay, neither ion dominated; instead, they worked in harmony.

Powering clean energy

Half-cell tests are the first step towards real world applications. For the next step, I demonstrated how a mixture of lithium and sodium worked in a full battery cell.

Battery capacity retention measures the percentage of the energy originally stored in a battery that remains available after a given period of usage. The full cell delivered a battery capacity retention of 70% after 200 cycles. This is far better than the sodium-only electrolyte, which started to fail after about 50 cycles.

The full cell performance was particularly satisfying, as sodium remains the dominant charge carrier. This ensures that the battery is still fundamentally a sodium-ion system.

This breakthrough could help power the world’s clean-energy transition by reducing reliance on cobalt- and nickel-rich cathodes, which are common, but expensive, supply-constrained and linked to environmental concerns. Our design keeps sodium as the main working ion and pairs it with a more sustainable iron sulphide cathode.
Because sodium and iron are more abundant than many conventional battery metals, the chemistry could be cheaper and easier to scale.

The small amount of lithium acts mainly as a performance booster rather than the main resource. That makes the battery both higher performing and potentially less dependent on costly critical materials. Furthermore, it represents a new route to storing renewable energy on the grid, which can help communities and industries transition to a greener future.

Despite the success of our prototype, much work remains to be done. The anode in our cell and half-cell was made of germanium, which is expensive. The next challenge is to replace germanium with cheaper anode materials. One candidate is silicon, which can reversibly host both lithium and sodium ions during charging and discharging, but also provide the battery with a higher storage capacity.

This boost would increase the energy density of sodium-dominated batteries. We also need to pair the anode with a cathode capable of producing higher voltages than we currently have.

I have already been exploring alternative and sustainable pairings of different ions, such as lithium–magnesium and potassium–sodium. I am also experimenting with new electrolyte formulations.

My team’s research shows that by embracing the yin-yang of lithium and sodium, we can move towards batteries that show both high performance and sustainability. This raises the prospect of a world where your phone, car and even the grid will draw power from cheap, abundant sodium ions – gently assisted by a whisper of lithium.