Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. Saudi Arabia says it will cut 1 million

barrels of crude oil per day and a move aimed at boosting sagging prices on the world market.

As NPR's Jackie Northam reports, the decision follows a meeting of OPEC members.

This is the second time since April that OPEC announced a surprise cut in production

to help raise prices. Saudi Arabia says it will start its new voluntary cut in July,

and could extend that well into 2024. It will bring the kingdom below 9 million barrels

a day for the first time in more than a decade. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin

Salman announced the reduction in a statement shortly after the OPEC cartel ended hours

of haggling. There was pressure on many African nations to also reduce their output and

on Russia, which keeps pumping huge amounts of cheap oil despite previous agreements

to cut. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates will increase its production.

Jackie Northam NPR News

Our Minister Alban Quarty of Kosovo is resisting renewed calls by the U.S. to de-escalate a dispute

over measures in a surre majority parts of northern Kosovo. It follows violence by ethnic

serves angered at the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors after they won an election.

The serves had boycotted. The U.S. envoy to the Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, tells the

BBC there should have been no need for this dispute.

They turned out to be a test of wills between those who didn't want the new mayors taking

their office and those who insisted that they needed to be in those buildings for symbolic

reasons. In that regard, it was entirely avoidable.

Quarty acknowledged the current mayors had weak legitimacy because of the low turnout.

Some residents in Washington, D.C. in the Metro area have reported hearing a loud boom

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