Nike just posted another quarter that nobody at headquarters will frame on a wall. Revenue came in at $11.21 billion, down 4% and short of the $11.32 billion analysts expected, according to CNBC. Net income slipped 2% to $712 million. Earnings per share of 48 cents beat the 43-cent consensus, which is the kind of win you take when the rest of the scoreboard looks like this.

The ugliest number is Greater China, where revenue dropped 26%. North America held at $5.13 billion. The stock fell about 3% after hours and is down more than 40% this year—part of a 75% slide over five years that got Nike removed from the S&P 100 last month. For a company that spent decades as the default answer to “what are the coolest sneakers,” that’s a long way to fall.

So there’s a plan, and it’s called Pace. Nike will cut roles starting in 2027, reorganize into three geographies, build a new campus in India and squeeze out roughly $2.5 billion in savings through fiscal 2031. It's the third round of layoffs the company has announced this year. Nike hasn’t said how many jobs are going.

Then there’s the talent drain, which stings more than any spreadsheet. Kylian Mbappé walked after two decades with the swoosh and signed with On. Lamine Yamal went to Adidas. Terms on both deals haven't been disclosed. CEO Elliott Hill inherited a brand that used to win those fights without breaking a sweat, and now loses them to a Swiss running company your coworker discovered 18 months ago.

Guidance for fiscal 2027 calls for a high-single-digit revenue decline, per CNBC, meaning Nike is telling investors to expect worse before better. Savings from Pace don’t fully land until 2031. That’s a pretty long runway for a company whose entire pitch was speed.

Roughly 9,000 U.S. troops and a third aircraft carrier strike group are headed for the Middle East, a U.S. official told the Associated Press Thursday. That’s a fast, heavy escalation and the oil market read it instantly.

The package breaks down to more than 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines, built around the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group, according to Fortune. Three carriers could be in the region by late October, pushing U.S. naval personnel there above 20,000. President Donald Trump said new strikes on Iran are “possible” after the Nov. 3 midterms. He also said early indications link Iran to the FlyDubai co-pilot who stabbed his captain Wednesday. Iran's latest ceasefire offer, which included reopening the Strait of Hormuz, he rejected as “not good enough.”

Energy traders did the math. Brent closed up 4.4% at $102.31 and WTI rose 2.7% to $92.87, CNBC reported. U.S. diesel averaged $6.40 a gallon Thursday, near record highs, after Russian export bans and refinery attacks squeezed supply — the number that quietly reprices everything you buy.

In an executive order, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed state Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the alleged gang rape of a Cornell University student, stripping the file from Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten.

Her reasoning was blunt. Newly released information about the Cornell police investigation, paired with Van Houten’s decision not to prosecute, had “undercut my faith, and the public’s faith “in his office,” Hochul said. James will now investigate and, if warranted, present evidence to a grand jury.

By now you’ve heard that an accuser identified as Jane Doe sued the university, seven Chi Phi fraternity brothers and others, alleging she was drugged and assaulted at the fraternity house in October 2024. None of the seven was criminally charged. Van Houten reopened the case this week while defending his original call, saying Doe’s 2024 statement described the conduct as consensual. He also told reporters he never saw the full police interview transcript, which CBS News reported this week—the detail that appears to have broken the case open. NBC News reported Cornell agreed Wednesday to an outside investigation of its own handling and said it supports James’ appointment.