Josh Wintersgill has been running a successful business selling products to help wheelchair users travel for six years, but its future hangs in the balance.

He's been using the government's Access to Work scheme to help with some of the additional costs of running his company and is afraid that he may lose it after his one-on-one support was slashed by 80%.

The Business Disability Forum (BDF) says businesses and their disabled employees are being "set up to fail," despite the government's ambitions to get 80% of disabled people into the workforce.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it was reviewing all aspects of the scheme.

'Really frustrating'

Josh needs physical support with most things throughout the day because of his disability. This includes travelling, overnight stays and packing and shipping customer orders. Without this support he says he would not be able to run his company.

The Access to Work grant was providing him with a support worker five days a week, but on reassessment, it was reduced to one day.

He said: "They're basically with me all the time. They help me in every facet of helping me do my job and without them, I can't do any of that."

Josh has appealed the decision and has not had any support since the start of July, when his grant ran out, despite no change in his personal circumstances.

Under the Access to Work scheme, companies and employees can apply for grants to help support disabled people in the workplace.

The programme can pay employees and businesses for the extra costs associated with being a disabled worker - things that go beyond what is legally required by employers to provide. It covers a range of things like paying for taxis, assistive technology and British Sign Language interpreters.

Disabled people have told the BBC their awards have been significantly reduced, completely taken away and in some cases left them forced to shut their businesses and turn down job offers.

Josh is currently managing by using his own money to keep the business afloat, but says things are "very tight" and he'll only be able to do this for the next few months.

"I'm not getting everything done that I used to get done," he says. "There's so much to do that it's just so hard to stay on top of it... it's just really frustrating."

Josh says Access to Work helped him get into work and set up his own business, but is fearful of what will happen if that is taken away.

"It's scary to think that I'm a disabled entrepreneur, helping disabled people and potentially being deprived of doing that."

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"We have a system that's making it very difficult for you to remain in work," he adds.

Campaign group Access to Work Collective was set up in response to problems people were facing when applying or reapplying for grants. Its founder, Dr Shani Dhanda said since July they've amassed almost 4,000 members.

The group recently sent an open letter to the prime minister asking him to take "urgent" action to fix the "broken" scheme.

'Affecting the quality of our work'

The lunchtime rush at the Sea Change in cafe in Sunderland is under way. The social enterprise employs 25 neurodiverse adults and uses Access to Work to support most of them.

Lexie O'Connor has been at the cafe since it opened in 2019. In between customers she explains how working at the cafe has given her confidence and a sense of pride and now trains others on how to work with neurodiverse and disabled staff.

Lexie's reapplication took 10 months to come through and when it did the hours for her one-to-one support worker had been greatly reduced, leaving the business to make up the shortfall.

"A lot of employers in that time physically would not be able to manage keeping people like myself employed," she said.

Lexie says she sees a lot of her colleagues worry about their job prospects because of the problems with Access to Work. The cafe has said it already had to let two members of staff go because support was cut.

"We're worrying so much about it, it's affecting the quality of work that we worked so hard to get to in the first place.

"I feel like places like Sea Change are trying their best, they are fighting for people like me."

'Set up to fail'

Ministers have widely acknowledged Access to Work as a key driver in getting disabled people in work, but in an interview with the BBC, minister for social security and disability, Sir Stephen Timms, said the problem was the "huge numbers of people wanting it", adding they had been struggling "to keep up with the demand".

Spending on the programme increased by 41% in 2023-24 to £257.8m.

In February 2025 about 62,000 applications were waiting to be processed, with 33,000 people awaiting payment, according to the DWP.

A government consultation on Access to Work closed at the end of June with ministers currently reviewing what a new scheme could look like.

​​Angela Matthews, director of public policy and research at BDF called on the government to make access to work "more efficient and more resourced".

​​She told the BBC: "Disabled people are set up to fail and so are employers, because disabled people won't get what they need to be able to work and employers won't have the means or the support to provide an inclusive workplace for disabled people."

Member of BDF, Allianz UK, said despite the size of the insurance business, it had not been immune to the struggles with Access to Work.

Diana Salmon, head of occupational health and safety at the firm, says the biggest issue has been the long waits for awards to be processed. In some cases people are waiting longer than 10 months to start work.

Diana says: "It [the delays] could put people off applying to us... so we do our best but we can't afford really to pick up the high support costs."

She referenced a recent example of a new recruit who left the company shortly after starting the role because it took nearly a year to get specialist equipment in place so they could fully carry out the job.

"We want to provide an inclusive environment, but without timely Access to Work funding for colleagues with complex disabilities, they are potentially being excluded," Diana said.

Diana has herself used Access to Work in a previous job. The money paid for travel costs to visit her team in different locations, which she otherwise wouldn't have been able to do, but said she sees the value in the programme.

"It would be much more difficult for us to attract, recruit and to retain employees with disabilities [without the scheme]," she said.

In a statement the DWP said: "We inherited an Access to Work scheme that is failing both employees and employers, which is why - as part of our welfare reform - we consulted on how it could be improved.

"We are reviewing all aspects of the scheme and will develop future policy with disabled people and the organisations that represent them."

It added there had been "no change in Access to Work policy".

Celebrated children's writer Robert Munsch has been approved for medically assisted dying in Canada.

Munsch, whose 85 published books include The Paper Bag Princess and Love You Forever, was diagnosed with dementia in 2021 and also has Parkinson's disease.

The author told the New York Times Magazine that he had not decided a date for his death, but said he would go "when I start having real trouble talking and communicating. Then I'll know."

Canada first legalised euthanasia in 2016 for people with terminal illnesses. In 2021, the law was changed to include those with serious and chronic physical conditions, even in non-life threatening circumstances.

Munsch has sold more than 80 million copies of his books in North America alone and they have been translated into at least 20 language - including Arabic, Spanish and Anishinaabemowin, an indigenous North American language.

In 1999, Munsch was made a member of the Order of Canada. A decade later, he received a star of Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.

In the interview with the New York Times Magazine, Munsch said his decision was influenced by watching his brother die from Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - the most common form of motor neurone disease (MND).

Munsch said: "They kept him alive through all these interventions. I thought, let him die."

In Canada, people over 18 must meet several requirements to be eligible for assisted dying.

They include having a "serious and incurable illness", making a "voluntary request that is not the result of external pressure" and be in an "advanced state of irreversible decline in capability".

Two independent doctors or nurse practitioners must then assess the patient to confirm that all of the eligibility requirements are met.

Scholastic, Munsch's publisher, said in a statement on Instagram that his decision to speak publicly about medically assisted dying "reminds us, once again, why Robert's work continues to touch many generations".

Munsch's daugher, Julie, posted on Facebook that her father's decision to pursue medically assisted dying was made five years ago.

Julie called the New York Times Magazine interview "great", but added that "nowhere does it say my dad isn't doing well, nor that he's going to die anytime soon".

According to Canadian law, the person must be able to actively consent on the day of his death.

"I have to pick the moment when I can still ask for it," he said in the interview.

Medically assisted dying accounted for 4.7% of deaths in Canada in 2023 - the most recent official government statistics.

Some 96 per cent of the 15,300 people that underwent assisted dying in 2023 had a death deemed "reasonably forseeable", due to severe medical conditions like cancer.

The wheat fields outside Seqalbia, near the Syrian city of Hama, should be golden and heavy with grain.

Instead, Maher Haddad's 40 dunums (10 acres) are dry and empty, barely yielding a third of their usual harvest.

"This year was disastrous due to drought," said the 46-year-old farmer, reflecting on the land that cost him more to sow than it gave back.

His fields delivered only 190kg (418 lbs) of wheat per dunum - far below the 400-500kg he relies on in a normal year.

"We haven't recovered what we spent on agriculture; we've lost money. I can't finance next year and I can't cover the cost of food and drink," Mr Haddad told the BBC.

With two teenage daughters to feed, he is now borrowing money from relatives to survive.

Mr Haddad's struggle is echoed across Syria, where the worst drought in 36 years has slashed wheat harvests by 40% and is pushing a country - where nearly 90% of the population already lives in poverty - to the brink of a wider food crisis.

A report from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates Syria will face a wheat shortfall of 2.73m tonnes this year, the equivalent of annual dietary needs for 16.25 million people.

Without more food aid or the ability to import wheat, Syria's hunger crisis is set to worsen dramatically, warned Piro Tomaso Perri, FAO's senior programme officer for Syria.

"Food insecurity could reach unprecedented levels by late 2025 into mid-2026," he said, noting that more than 14 million Syrians - six in 10 people - are already struggling to eat enough. Of those, 9.1 million face acute hunger, including 1.3 million in severe conditions, while 5.5 million risk sliding into crisis without urgent intervention.

The same report showed rainfall has dropped by nearly 70%, crippling 75% of Syria's rain-fed farmland.

"This is the difference between families being able to stay in their communities or being forced to migrate," Mr Perri said. "For urban households, it means rising bread prices. For rural families, it means the collapse of their livelihoods."

Farming families are already selling livestock to supplement lost incomes from wheat, reducing their number of daily meals, and there has been a rise in malnutrition rates among children and pregnant women.

Yet, the implications of the drought stretch far beyond the thousands of kilometres of barren farmlands.

Wheat is a staple crop in Syria. It is the main ingredient for bread and pasta - two food staples that should be low cost foods to families. So with the lack of wheat supply, the cost goes up.

For 39-year-old widow Sanaa Mahamid, affording bread has become a massive struggle.

With six children between the ages of nine and 20, she relies on the wages of two sons, but their salaries are not enough to cover the family's basic expenses.

"Sometimes we borrow money just to buy bread," she said.

Last year, a bag of bread cost Sanna 500 Syrian pounds ($4.1; £3; €3.5), but now it is 4,500 Syrian pounds. To feed her family, Sanaa needs two bags a day - an expense of 9,000 pounds, before accounting for any other food.

"This is too much. This is just bread, and we still need other things," she said. "If the price of bread rises again, this will be a big problem. The most important thing is bread."

The crisis is a challenge for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, as his administration works to rebuild Syria in the aftermath of the 14-year conflict and the removal of former leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

International agencies, like the UN World Food Programme (WFP), are rushing to step in alongside the government to provide bread subsidies for those at risk of facing severe food insecurity.

But aid officials warn that subsidies are only a temporary fix, and that the long-term stability of Syria depends on whether farmers can stay on their land and sustain production.

"We're trying to keep people in the farming game," Marianne Ward, the WFP's country director for Syria, said. She has worked to give $8m (£6m; €6.9m) in direct payments to small farmers - about 150,000 people - who lost all of their crops.

"If you're not going to make money, you're going to leave the land. And then you're not going to have people who are going to be working in the agriculture sector which is essential for the economy," she said

But after more than a decade of war, Syria's agricultural sector was already battered by economic collapse, destroyed irrigation systems, and mined fields.

Dr Ali Aloush, the agriculture director for the Deir al-Zour region, Syria's breadbasket, said wheat fields needed to be irrigated four to six times per season, but that due to lack of rain, most farmers could not keep up.

"The farmer's primary concern is first securing water and water requires fuel. The fuel price skyrocketed. It reached to 11,000 to 12,000 Syrian pounds per litre," Dr Aloush said.

The high price of fuel and power cuts meant water pumps were out of reach, and many growers were already burdened with debt.

Dr Aloush says a priority for his department and the transitional government in Damascus is putting money into irrigation projects - like solar powered drips - that will make water more accessible to farmers.

But projects like that take time and money - luxuries wheat farmers do not currently have.

So for millions of Syrians across the country, there is only one thing to do in the coming months: pray for rain.

Additional reporting by Lana Antaki in Damascus

When Alan gave his Persian tabby cat, Smokey, its regular flea treatment last year, he thought nothing could go wrong.

The 45-year-old from Preston had used the same brand - Frontline Plus - for years without any trouble. But within hours of applying a new dose he'd bought online, his usually lively tabby was violently ill, vomiting and refusing food or water.

"I bought it from a major online site and the price seemed similar so I didn't suspect anything at the time," Alan told the BBC's Morning Live.

Alan's story comes after the government recently issued an urgent warning about fake veterinary products being sold online.

With vet bills up 60% in the last decade, more owners are turning to the internet to hunt for bargains.

• Watch Alan and Smokey's story on Morning Live

The vet that Alan took Smokey to initially found nothing abnormal, but when his condition deteriorated, scans revealed a blockage in his intestines. Emergency surgery saved his life - at a cost of £3,000 - and tests later confirmed he had suffered a toxic reaction.

Alan returned to the vet with the packaging. At first glance, it looked genuine, labelled as "Gatti" - which Alan assumed might be an Italian version of the medication.

But when the manufacturer was contacted, they confirmed it was counterfeit and laboratory testing found it contained a chemical highly toxic to cats.

"We felt really guilty about the fact we had done this to him," Alan said. "But finding out it was fake medication, we were really angry.

"It's horrific and I had absolutely no idea there was such a thing as fake pet medication."

Helen Barnham works at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), a government team tasked with trying to stop the sale of counterfeit goods.

The team has issued more than 100 seizure notices for the selling of unauthorised animal medicines and supplements, preventing around 18,000 illegal items from reaching consumers.

"Criminals copy these products to make them look like the original and it's all to make money, they don't care about the damage or harm," she explained.

According to the IPO, the online seller who Alan bought the medication from managed to sell 211 batches of suspected counterfeit pet medications and supplements.

"If it's not from a vet or a trusted seller then please be vigilant," Barnham said.

Barnham is urging pet owners to check all pet medicines carefully before using them.

Even if a product looks authentic, there are often subtle clues something is wrong.

Signs that a medicine could be fake

• Poor quality, damaged or flimsy packaging
• Spelling or grammar errors on the label
• Missing instruction leaflets or expiry dates
• Instructions not provided in English
• Suspicious smell, colour or texture
• Tablets or pipettes that look homemade or poorly made
• Unusually low prices or deals that seem too good to be true
• Product names that are slightly misspelled or altered from the original brand

Nina Downing, Vet Nurse from PDSA, a vet charity, says she always recommends only giving your pet medicine which has been prescribed by a vet.

"When fulfilling a prescription online, source them from reputable companies that are on the Register of online retailers, brought to you by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate."

If the medication has any of the above warning signs, you should stop using the product immediately and contact your vet for medical advice.

You should also report it to your local trading standards office and notify the brand manufacturer, who may be able to verify if it's genuine.