Axios

Recurrent Ventures, a venture equity-backed digital media rollup company, informed employees of a new round of layoffs on Monday.

Why it matters: The cuts come amid a volatile ad market and broader changes at the company. Recurrent named its third CEO in just three years last week.

Bloomberg Industry Group, an affiliate of Bloomberg L.P. that produces content for regulatory professionals, has laid off at least 14 employees, Axios has learned. It also plans to shutter its K Street office in downtown Washington D.C. where many of those employees worked.

Why it matters: The layoffs reflect broader challenges within the media industry. Just last week, G/O Media, Vice Media and Condé Nast all announced staff cuts.

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas. Too early? Well, too bad.

Driving the news: Christmas tunes can already be heard in stores and on the radio, and Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You" is making its annual ascent up the charts.

Labor unrest is so intense this year that even labor unions are facing internal staff rebellions.

Driving the news: The 48 employees who make up the field staff of the National Education Association, the teachers' union, voted unanimously on Monday to authorize a strike.

Drake and J. Cole's song "First Person Shooter" claims the duo is "as big as the Super Bowl," which makes the timing of their upcoming tour appropriate.

Driving the news: The duo on Monday announced the dates for "It's All a Blur Tour — Big As the What?" The tour starts Jan. 18 in Denver and wraps up March 27 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Private equity and venture capital funds could be facing more regulations on their investments into China, due to a new bill introduced by Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

Why it matters: This could escalate tensions between the world's two largest economies, just as there are new signs of cooperation ahead of this week's APEC summit in San Francisco.

After months of vague signals, Exxon just vowed to become a "leading producer" of lithium for electric vehicles.

Why it matters: It's a major expansion of the oil giant's diversification strategy, at a time when EVs are becoming a major focus for automakers, even in the face of operational and political headwinds.

Don't expect big changes at Web Summit, incoming CEO Katherine Maher tells Axios, because it wasn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed.

The big picture: Maher, the former CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, took the reins at Web Summit — the giant global tech event that begins Monday in Lisbon — in a sudden and unplanned transition, following the abrupt exit of founding CEO Paddy Cosgrave after he made controversial comments about Israel's actions in Gaza.

Tesla is rapidly constructing a planned 1950s-style diner and drive-in movie theater in Hollywood that will also be a Supercharger station with 32 charging stalls.

Why it matters: If the country's dominant electric vehicle (EV) maker plans to use its first public restaurant as a national blueprint, it could augur the start of a chain of charge-and-dine stations, which would be a new retail category.