NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald TD and Deputy Leader Michelle O'Neill MLA speaking to the media on the Plinth at Leinster House Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

• The DUP has confirmed it will vote against the Brexit deal agreed between the UK and the EU when it goes before the House of Commons on Saturday. 
• A Garda has told the Disclosures Tribunal that he believes he was left “trapped” in “the most stressful job in the station” because he had become a whistleblower. 
• Tánaiste Simon Coveney has said it is “not acceptable” that a five-year-old child had to eat his dinner on the streets of Dublin. 
• A man who 16 when he told a teenage girl he would send around photos of her in a sexual act if she didn’t “give a blowjob” to another boy has been jailed.
• A coroner has expressed concern after an inquest heard that an 84-year-old man lay dead at his home in Cork city for up to seven months.
• An application for planning permission has been made for a major property development beside St Anne’s Park in north Dublin.
• Dozens of credit unions around Ireland have rolled out a new current account service. 
• Gardaí are renewing their appeal for the public’s assistance in tracing the whereabouts of a 17-year-old girl who is missing from Dublin. 

INTERNATIONAL

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, ahead of the opening sessions of the European Council summit Stefan Rousseau Stefan Rousseau

#BREXIT: The UK and EU have agreed a new Brexit deal after intense negotiations, which Boris Johnson hailed as an agreement that “takes back control”.

#CEASEFIRE: US Vice President Mike Pence has announced that Turkey has agreed to a ceasefire to allow the Kurdish forces it was battling to safely withdraw from an area in northern Syria.

#GASCOIGNE: Ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been cleared of sexually assaulting a woman on a train after he kissed her on the lips.

PARTING SHOT

Well, today was yet another big day on the Brexit front. 

After almost two years of political posturing, finger-pointing and passive-aggressive statements, the UK and European Union finally agreed a new Brexit deal this morning.

The agreement comes after days of back-and-forth negotiations between the two sides, both of whom finally seem happy with what the other has put on the table.

One aspect of the new deal is conspicuous by its absence: the backstop on Northern Ireland.

But what happened to it? What has changed in relation to Northern Ireland? 

You can read our explainer - Where has the Northern Ireland backstop gone? – here.