we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. naples. the noisy, the chaotic the effervescent one. the one which in the sun smells of the salt of its sea, and in the shade, odours of the dampness of its alleyways. naples. the modern, the experimental, the iridescent one. the naples of mount vesuvius, as seen by andy warhol. the city of the prog rock and blues of pino daniele and napule e. the polychrome naples. the melancholic and syncopated naples of liberato.

naples. the lazzerona. the popular. the naples of diego. the city owned by its people. naples. which usually loses, but occasionally manages to win. on may 4, napoli secured the italian football championship with a draw at udinese, a first serie a title for azzurri in 33 years — the first since diego maradona. take six neapolitans, the class of �*23, and view the achievement through their eyes. in naples, football is everything. it'sjoy, it's love, it's fun, it's sadness. it is important to us to win against teams from the north. we are pending for this- moment since a long time.

so we just feel this . power, this emotion. this year, all of the opponents fall down — inter, milan, juventus with their problems. we have to think about the future. we have this great future — we're on our roads. to be neapolitan is a dream. i say every time we are firsti of all neapolitans, and then italians. the 2022—�*23 season wasn't expected to pan out this way. napoli, under head coach luciano spalletti, had let go of star players kalidou koulibaly, dries mertens, and lorenzo insigne. their replacements were unproven. by the end of may, they were highly sought—after. napoli stormed to the serie a title, winning it with five matches to spare, finishing 16 points clear of lazio. but the drama didn't end there. spalletti left at the end of the season, citing the need for a break from football. the title was won, but how?

this team is passionate because it's a great team. they found an alchemy between these guys, it is incredible. they are a team, a real team, a real one. they collaborate, they play together. when you see the team play, you feel there is a great connection on the field, but also outside. i think this one of the ingredients that bring napolis to victory. when spalletti coach came, people were not so happy, because they had this impression that he was a locker room breaker. he had problems with totti in rome. he had problems with mauro icardi at inter. so when he came here, napoli fans didn't — were not so happy.

he is a great manager and he also made a difference. he went around the world so he brought here important experience from everywhere. he's a — he's a winner. he arrived here as a winner. i like him because he's a very passionate man. he's not from the south, but he looks like he's from the south, because he is full of passion. spalletti was — did a great job, but a coach can only put his 20% in the final result. and this is hisjob. we love these guys, | we love all the men,

all these guys, because they put it all on the pitch, - and — and for us, it is very| important, this, too sweat the shirt, and they — - and they do the — do the best for the club. i think that we is ten years that we had a good team, good players, good team. but every time, we miss something. we had good players, a good manager when it started with ancelotti. now everything is going in the right places, you know? we actually — we won the italian cup, the copa italia, twice. good result. but the championship, in italy, is something different. this team is really, really special, because, for example, you can — you can have a guy from nigeria, another guy from south korea, another one from georgia. and very strange to —

to have this melting pot of people, and they play well, altogether, and they maybe don't speak the same language, and — but they understand very well the ball and the game. southern people in italy, - they live everything with love, with so much emotion, in a different way- to the north. we are not a team that is used to winning. - so now in this moment, | we're getting everything that we need. it's also almost 30 years that we are waiting - for this championship. we feel this energy and we are very happy people because it would be like a dream come true. and i think that is the special thing that — of neapolitan team. the people, the supporters are crazy — are crazy for naples. maybe sometimes they tell me, "for me, naples is more "than my girlfriend, more than my wife." numberone.

for the neapolitans, the club is very special. in this stadium, the atmosphere is amazing. we start to celebrate, first of all. and we are very proud of this. like 30 years ago, when there was maradona here. versus milan, or turin, or versus the big city from northern italy. it is also a way to escape from daily problems, a way to have fun with the people, a party. and then this period is happiness. formed in 1926, the supporters of napoli have had to learn to be patient. trophies haven't arrived at the same pace as their main rivals from the north — milan, inter, juventus. as a second division club, they won the italian cup in 1962, but there was just one trophy in the 19705.

patience was rewarded with the arrival of diego maradona, then 23 years old, in 1984, to awaken a golden period of championships and cup wins. after diego, the roller—coaster took a dip, with bankruptcy — down to the third division by 200a. then a slow revival, back amongst the elite, and in 2023, the crowning glory of the serie a title, 33 years of patience. naples was a great capital until a century and a half ago, and then the italian union, naples become the third city, and naples remains a cultural capital, but everything's moved in the north — that is

the richer part of the country — so as people from the south, especially from naples, we are really proud of history. it's something really important, and of course it's something that is connected also with sport. there is such, like, fight, between the south of italy and the north. and football is a thing with we can demonstrate that we have the same values as others. in football, there is no difference. historically, there's this rivality with the north. i as i said, for economical reasons, social reasons, | even now, people, mosti of people, young people, go to the the north to find a job, so it's something. you really felt from the city. if you walk on the streets, you can see the flags, you can see the people on the — on the balcony. maybe they can sing for you a neapolitan song, and this is really, really amazing for one tourist, and when you come to

naples, you can see this. i always feel at home when i'm here. i also feel at home at the stadium, because it is like you are connected with all the strangers all around you. and you feel like you know them since forever, and it's a magic thing that only naples can give you. every sunday, or every time that the naples club plays, i in the city _ there is no rumours. it's — it's a very quiet cityl during the football game. but then, you know, - you hear the scream of the — of the sao paulo maradona - stadium, so you can understand how the relationship i within the city and the football club is.

neapolitan people love football, and love the — love the city and love the club, because we are the first big city in italy with one — just one club. milan has two clubs, turin, two clubs, rome, two clubs. naples has just one. and this is very important because all the neapolitan people, when they're born, they support naples, since the first day of life. first time i saw a football match, i was speaking with my father. iasked him, "0k, dad, who we are supporting?" "who are we?" he said, "the blue guys." i said, "why?" he gave me two answers. first one, because this is the team of our city. and the second, more importantly, because in this team plays diego armando maradona. diego maradona came to the club injune198a

for a world—record fee. the squad was rebuilt around him. eighth in his first season, third in his second year. by 1987, maradona had worked his magic under the guidance of manager ottavio bianchi. the first team from the south to win the serie a since cagliari in 1970, cultural barriers had been broken. and a year after fulfilling his childhood dream of lifting the world cup for argentina, his status was lifted to an even higher plane. when maradona arrived in naples, it was seen like a sort of a messiah, something that would bring justice to the people. maradona for napoli, maybe is a god, maybe is a saint, maybe is a president, and maybe is everything. he represented a lot, - because he gave people hope. and hope is an important thing. it's a powerful one. maradona, here, was a demigod.

maradona could not walk in the city in the daytime. there were, i don't know, a mother with her child, walking in the street, and see maradona, the first thought of the mother was, "here, take my son "and give him a kiss" — you know? it's like the pope. maradona was something incredibly special, because right now we have an incredible team. at that time we had a good team, but maradona was something like a god, and he carried on his shoulders the team and bring naples the victory. he is a man, a conqueror. in the south, we have i to win against the north. for maradona to do this, it is all. - he also was from a poor country. he was from argentina. he had nothing, like most of the neapolitans of that time.

however, in each of the objectives, he came here and he had nothing, but he take everything. and i think that is the point, yeah. neapolitans and maradona, i think they see themselves. maradona really gave us a lot of energy, a lot of power, a lot of meanings. so we develop a really strong relationship between south america citizens and italia, especially naples, we have a strong relationship with argentinians. and for them, soccer and football is very important, too, so i don't know, i think it is like a cultural or socialthings, it is particular and unique. nowadays, maradona is still present in this - city, you know? you just have to walk - in the street and you can find

a painting of diego maradona literally everywhere. - you can find one . of his hair in a bar. the owner of this bar had the grace, had the luck. of having a miraculous| hair—rub, meeting with diego maradona, and put it| into his wall, writing under, "this is the miraculous hairl of diego maradona," so now everyone is going theyjust to see to touch, maybe - to touch his hair and to have a coffee there. i now that he is dead, i he has notjust a chapel with his hair, if you go- and walk in quartieri spagnoli you can find like a sanctuary. now that demigod has a church. maradona is love. maradona is part of the people. he is like a common man but he was the best of us.

he got many problems in his life but in naples we only remember him for thejoy. for him, this city was incredible. he lived a very good moment of his career in naples, and naples love him since the first day. maradona led napoli to uefa cup success in 1989 and a second serie a title a year later, but he left the club following a 15—month ban after a positive drugs test. no—one could replace him. star players came and went, but long—term decline set in and the club were relegated in 1998. after maradona video there was some big problem. it was a hard time for young neapolitans. we were still thinking, "ok, now we are not so good "but we are still

the team of maradona." and suddenly we were not a team anymore because napoli went into bankruptcy. we don't have money so we need to sell all the players. look at the players we had — ferrara, cannavaro, we had zola — many good players. we sell everybody to keep the balance but it was no good. it was a really difficult moment for the city and, for example, i remember about my grandmother that really involved in napoli football club because she was really a fan of the club, so that people really suffered this, they think we have lost everything. the club was bought by a film producer, aurelio de laurentiis, and, in his words, he only had

�*a piece of paper,�* not even footballs to practise with. something changed with the arrival of aurelio de laurentiis. the president have a really complicated relationship with the city, with the supporter, because the supporter doesn't like the power and he represented the power. 0ur president never be so popular because he always follow his idea of the team as a brand, an industry. we like to have a president that be a fan and not a manager — he was a manager, not a fan. i think that aurelio de laurentiis came because it was really cheap to buy naples in that time, so he took an economic advantage because, in that time, he was able to buy napoli with an amount of money which was maybe not worth the impression of the people. he was very clever,

let's say because he say, "ok, now we have no team but we still have the people, "we still have the fans." they were in the third division of italian football but loyalfans still came, over 50,000 for their first serie c match against cittadella. there was promotion back to serie a in 2007. six years later they were runners—up tojuventus, the rise masterminded by coaches like walter mazzarri, rafael benitez and mauricio sarri. he started like a slow but constant growth. he was in serie b. napoli then he was serie a, then europa league and he was really able to understand that, for a team like this, football trading was fundamental.

we like to have a president who like to spend money. he doesn't like to spend mone he preferred to get good players and not spending so much money. he had not the money of a multinational society, so he had to do this — buy young players and try to sell them at the triple of what he paid. he did this with edinson cavani. he did this with ezequiel lavezzi. actually, wayne. wayne was already famous but he paid 45 millions of euros for wayne then sold him 90 million, so double. with this way of do his business he could build strong society. then he just had to wait because when you build a strong house or a strong thing, you just have to wait.

not always was a good idea but then this moment everyone need to clap hands to him to build a very good team. luciano spalletti arrived 2021. the club's decisions to remove some of the most popular players prompted heavy protests. president de laurentiis was urged to sell the club but the policy came to an outstanding conclusion where the long—awaited championship, a first without maradona, was secured. if left fans in a state of delirium. now we have great top players but it is more for the team. i think this is difference between now and then. i think it was lucky to find

a good coach like spalletti. he has a great personality and when you are on that level you have to be like this, in the positive and negative way because if you don't reach — how you can reach that kind of level if you don't go past different problems, you know? and different kind of things. when the club sold koulibaly, mertens and lorenzo insigne the other people are a little bit not happy for this. now... now, we love these players, yeah? they are in my heart. forever we will remember what they do to be here now. but the new team, the new guys, are very strong — strong players. we are happy, we are happy

to have them in our team. kvaratskhelia i think, it will be a great thing in football, i think. he will be a great player. he is doing a good job for naples. he is doing a great job for naples. we love all the players, that is the truth. we love all of them because they are trying to do their best, their all, and we enjoy that. kvaratskhelia is a big surprise. he looks like a good guy, a shaggy man but like he transform. he's a wonderful player, so everybody want to compare him to other older players. some people say he remind of george best. somebody say maradona. some kvaratskhelia, or 0simhen.

0simhen is another secret of this team. he is notjust a finisher. he can create something just with his aggressive, just with his attitude. i think 0simhen will do a great job in the premier league, too. 0simhen is like... spalletti said he is like i a dragon with two heads because in boxing he is dangerous. i the fans waiting for this for over 30 years and everybody wished for it. naples is a city really connected with faith, with the local saint, st gennaro. many people ask to st gennaro, it's like our super man, the local patron of the city to win this championship, and finally it arrives. it was worth the wait

and now we are enjoying it. spalletti announced that he was leaving napoli three weeks after the title was won, saying he needed to take some time away from football. de laurentiis said, "he's a free man. "he's given us something and i thank him. "it's right that he does what he wants." former roma boss rudy garcia takes over a squad with ambitions to repeat their title win and achieve success in europe, if star assets can be kept. supporting napoli was never meant to be easy. it is something that goes beyond winning titles and trophies. the perfect fit for a city that, after every game, salutes its team by chanting, "i love you, even if you win."

hello there. it was a very thundery start to the weekend, and particularly so across parts of the west midlands, into north—west england. and later, those storms spread their way northwards, into scotland, during the overnight period. part two of the weekend looks a little bit better. there will be sunny spells around, but further showers too and low pressure always close by, and these weather fronts, which will continue to generate these showers and thunderstorms. now, we start sunday off on a bright note, plenty of sunshine. that's the overnight rain — thundery in places, clearing northwards, so it could be quite wet in 0rkney all day. an area of rain, some of it thundery, could affect east anglia and the south—east for a time through the morning. then that clears into the afternoon, and then it's sunny spells, scattered showers. most of these, northern ireland, wales and western england. now, it's going to be a cooler, fresher day across the board. top temperature, around 23 degrees in the south—east. so we could have some disruption at wimbledon for that early rain.

but then, into the afternoon, it does look like conditions will improve, with increasing amounts of sunshine. so as you move into sunday evening, most of the showers fade away — not completely, but most of them will. we'll see lengthy, clearer skies, but across the south—west, here, we'll see some cloud thickening, with increasing breeze too. temperatures lower, fresher than what we've had over the last few nights. range from 10 to 12 degrees. cooler than that out of towns and cities. this area of low pressure will throw out further weather fronts into the south—west. this area of cloud will thicken up further. we'll see outbreaks of rain, strengthening winds — south—west england, into wales, pushing into the midlands. some of this could be quite heavy. elsewhere, it's sunny spells, scattered showers. so we could be up to around 2a degrees in the south—east, given plenty of sunshine. a little bit lower than that further north. but as you move out of monday into tuesday, this area of low pressure sits right on top of the uk, so a really unsettled day, i think, on tuesday. it'll be quite breezy. there will be some sunny spells in—between, but showers or longer spells of rain, and some of these showers could turn out to be heavy

and thundery in places. pretty much anywhere could catch a shower. and temperatures will be lower, 16 to 21 or 22 degrees. that's below par for the time of year. and temperatures fall further as we move deeper into the week. this area of low pressure pushes towards the north of the uk, bringing some cooler air down on that north—westerly wind. so it stays unsettled for much of this upcoming week, with temperatures below par for the time of year. there will still be some sunshine in—between the showers.

thanks for taking the time to seakto us. ., ~ i. . live from washington. this is bbc news. further allegations tonight concerning a bbc presenter accused of paying a teenager for sexually explicit photographs, beginning

when they were 17. invasion of ukraine. and some allies express concerns over the united states' decision to send cluster bombs to the country.