Rudy Giuliani: "I needed Yovanovitch out of the way"

President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told the New Yorker that he needed former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch "out of the way" because she was going to make the investigations of the Bidens and the 2016 election that he was pushing "difficult for everybody."

Why it matters: 
Yovanovitch was recalled by Trump in April after her reputation was publicly tarnished in articles by The Hill's John Solomon — a smear campaign that Giuliani admitted to coordinating.

Luka Doncic injury update: Rick Carlisle says Mavericks star is 'progressing well' after spraining ankle

After Luka Doncic went down with an ankle sprain early in Saturday night's battle against the Miami Heat, attention quickly shifted to the severity of the reigning Rookie of the Year's injury. X-rays were negative on Doncic's right ankle, and Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said Doncic was unlikely to play in Monday's win with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, which Luka missed due to the injury.

Doncic, diagnosed with a moderate ankle sprain, was able to put some weight on his foot when he left the arena after the game. There was optimism within the organization that the injury wasn't too severe, per the Dallas Morning News' Brad Townsend, and that optimism might be correct as Dallas expects Doncic to only miss a couple weeks, as reported by ESPN's Tim MacMahon.

Instead of traveling with the team to Milwaukee, Doncic received treatment in Dallas, and could be back soon after Christmas, per Townsend. Carlisle provided an update on Luka's health before Monday's game against the Bucks. 

"He is responding well to treatment," Carlisle said according to Malika Andrews of ESPN. "He is progressing well."

"If there is an update, it will be Wednesday night," Carlisle said. "It might not be much of an update at that point, but he's doing well."

Read more here: CBS Sports

Watch Now Live: The Rise of Skywalker early reviews

The Rise of Skywalker early reviews are in and here's what the check marks are saying thus far. It seems the leaks are true, but there are saying "if you think you know how this is going to go, think again". #TheRiseofSkywalker

Bitcoin Breakdown Looks Real, $6.2K On The Horizon?

• Bitcoin price is down around 4% and it broke the key $7,000 support against the US Dollar.
• The price is likely to continue lower towards $6,500 or $6,200 in the near term.
• There is a short term contracting triangle forming with resistance near $6,880 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair could gather momentum once it breaks the $6,800 support area.

Bitcoin (BTC) price is showing signs of bearish continuation below $6,800 against the US Dollar. BTC bears seems to be eyeing a test of the $6,500 support or $6,200.

Bitcoin Price Analysis

After consolidating above the $7,000 support, bitcoin bears gained strength against the US Dollar. As a result, BTC price nosedived below the $7,000 support and settled well below the 100 hourly simple moving average.

The price is down around 4% and it even broke the $6,880 support area. A new monthly low is formed near $6,800 and the price is currently consolidating losses.

An immediate resistance is near the $6,880 level. Besides, the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent downward move from the $7,135 high to $6,800 low is also near the $6,880 area.

More importantly, there is a short term contracting triangle forming with resistance near $6,880 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair. Therefore, an upside break above $6,880 level might start a short term upside correction.

The next resistance is near the $6,980 level. Additionally, the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent downward move from the $7,135 high to $6,800 low is also near the $6,980 level.

However, the main resistance is seen near the $7,000 and $7,015 levels (the recent breakdown zone). A successful daily close above $7,015 is needed to start a substantial recovery in the near term.

Conversely, the price is likely to accelerate lower below the $6,840 and $6,820 levels. If bitcoin breaks the $6,800 low, the next stop for the bears could be near $6,600 or $6,500.

Any further losses may perhaps lead the price towards the key $6,200 support area, where the bulls are likely to take a stand.

Source: Libr.co

Magic Johnson Congratulates Drew Brees on Passing TD Record

NBA Legend Earvin Magic Johnson on his twitter account congratulated Drew Brees on his Passing TD Record of 540 as he tops Peyton Manning (539) and Tom Brady (538) in the NFL leader board. "Congratulations to a legend and future Hall of Famer Drew Brees who passed another legend and future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning for most touchdown passes of all time! Such an awesome accomplishment.", says Magic Johnson.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas unveils new 20-Piso and 5-Piso coins

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas unveils the design of the new 20-piso coin as well as the upgraded 5-piso coin with nine corners, which the central bank plans to roll out early 2020. The new P20 coin is more expensive to produce than the banknote version, but the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas says it will last much longer. They plan to continue the circulation of the P20 banknote until 2021. Here are the pictures of the new coins.

LeBron James named Western Conference Player of the Week as Lakers on 7-game winning streak

Lebron James was named Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday. From December 9th through the 15th, the Lakers, who is half-game ahead of Milwaukee for the best record in the league at 24-3, went 3-0 against the Magic, Heat and Hawks as part of their current seven-game win streak. Over that span, James averaged 28.3 points, 11 rebounds, 9.7 assists, 1.3 steals and one block on better than 50-percent shooting. He also recorded his sixth triple-double of the season.

According to Joey Ramirez, Lakers' digital reporter, the Most Player of the Week honors in NBA history are the following:  LeBron James (62), Kobe Bryant (33), Kevin Durant (26), Michael Jordan (25) and James Harden (24).