Ares Buys Meade’s Central Penn Pipeline in $1.1B Deal with NextEra’s XPLR
Ares Management acquired...
Ares Management acquired Meade Pipeline Co. from affiliates of XPLR Infrastructure for approximately $1.1 billion in cash, the company announced Sept. 29.
Meade owns approximately 40% of the Central Penn Line, a 180-mile Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-regulated natural gas pipeline linking northeastern Pennsylvania production to hubs in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast through Williams Cos.’ Transcontinental Gas Pipeline system.
XPLR is an independent power producer formed by NextEra Energy.
The government will probably shut down at midnight
With the shutdown deadline looming, a meeting yesterday between President...
With the shutdown deadline looming, a meeting yesterday between President Trump and congressional leaders from both parties yielded no breakthrough on a deal to keep the government running once its current funding runs out. Democrats are demanding a budget that extends key Obamacare subsidies, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that “large differences” remained between the parties after the meeting. Both sides are blaming the other for the stalemate: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats would not support a budget that “continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” while Vice President JD Vance said, “We’re headed to a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing.”
Netanyahu agrees to Trump’s plan to end Gaza war. But...
Netanyahu agrees to Trump’s plan to end Gaza war. But it remained unclear yesterday whether Hamas would accept the 20-point plan, which would require major concessions from the group, including disarming and giving up the administration of Gaza, while leaving the possibility of a Palestinian state potentially open—but likely only in a distant future. Trump’s plan calls for the war to end immediately and for Hamas to release all remaining hostages within 72 hours. It would put postwar Gaza’s reconstruction in the hands of an international “Board of Peace” headed by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Trump said that if Hamas did not agree to the plan, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu would have the “full backing” of the U.S. to do what you would have to do.”
YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump over his suspension from the Alphabet-owned platform after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
ChatGPT users will be able to use its new Instant Checkout to make purchases from Etsy and Shopify without having to click out of the AI chatbot, OpenAI said yesterday.
President Trump threatened 100% tariffs on movies made outside the US, as well as “substantial Tariffs on any Country that does not make its furniture” in the US, in a pair of Truth Social posts that didn’t detail how these proposed import taxes would work or when they would begin.
Microsoft is hoping to bring the convenience of vibe coding (letting AI write computer code for you) to non-coding work through AI features for the Office suite. In more bring your bot to work news, Anthropic said its new AI model, Claude Sonnet 4.5, is “smarter and more of a colleague.”
Oil prices drop 3% as OPEC+ plans for oil output hike
Oil prices settled 3% lower on Monday as OPEC+ plans...
Oil prices settled 3% lower on Monday as OPEC+ plans for another increase to oil output in November and the resumption of oil exports by Iraq's Kurdistan region via Turkey raised the global supply outlook.
Brent crude futures closed at $67.97 per barrel on Monday, September 29, 2025, a decline of $2.16 or 3.1%.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $63.45 per barrel, down $2.27 or 3.45%.
OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers, meets on Sunday and is likely to confirm a production boost of at least 137,000 barrels per day for November to gain market share, said three sources.
Crude oil flowed through a pipeline from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to Turkey on Saturday for the first time in 2-1/2 years, Iraq's oil ministry said.
Crude oil flows from Kurdistan to Turkey's Ceyhan port are running at 150,000-160,000 bpd, two industry sources told Reuters.
The resumption is expected eventually to bring up to 230,000 bpd of crude back to international markets.
