The National Times - News around the clock from Sydney, Australia and around the world

Politics

Noosha Aubel and Dietmar Woidke: How Potsdam Is Letting Down a Young Child with Profound Disabilities

The state capital of Potsdam likes to present itself as a modern, child-friendly municipality. As recently as October 2025, the city administration celebrated the election of a “Lord Mayor for everyone,” when Noosha Aubel, 50, entered Potsdam City Hall with 72.9 percent of the vote. Born in 1978, Aubel built her career in child and youth welfare before rising to become a senior civil servant and, ultimately, Lord Mayor. Yet it is under her responsibility, of all people, that a morally shameful scandal is now unfolding—one that fundamentally undermines the city’s self-image as a socially responsible and inclusive community: a two-year-old child with an officially assessed degree of disability of 100 and care grade 4 has been waiting in vain for more than a year for the legally mandated daycare place with personal assistance.Our investigation is based on court documents, supervisory complaints, and press inquiries available to us. It reveals an alarming sequence of delays, unlawful referrals to other authorities, and a press office at Potsdam City Hall that appears intent on evading its duty to provide information through flimsy procedural maneuvers. The affected family does not regard the city’s conduct as an unfortunate isolated case, but as a structural failure. In 2022, the older sister of the child with profound disabilities was likewise denied a daycare place despite her severe disabilities—an officially assessed degree of disability of 100 and care grade 5. In that case, too, those responsible in the state capital of Potsdam failed completely, raising serious questions about morality, decency, callousness, and utter incompetence (https://live.deutsche-boerse.com/nachrichten/IRW-News--ACCESS-Newswire-Noosha-Aubel-Skandal-in-Potsdam-um-schwerstbehindertes-Kind-b9408cc0-6dbe-49d8-b664-7e5d788b2686).

Sports

Antonelli welcomes Mercedes upgrade as Russell says beware Hamilton

Formula One leader Kimi Antonelli said Thursday that a Mercedes upgrade would help him bounce back from a first defeat of the year but team-mate George Russell warned that Lewis Hamilton was back to his 'beautiful best'.

Last news