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

IRELAND

Noeleen and Sean O'Byrne welcoming their daughter Niamh home from North Carolina, US, at Dublin Airport today. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

• An Irish nurse in Australia has died after a tree branch fell on a taxi she was travelling in with friends.
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has accused Boris Johnson of putting the UK on course for a harder Brexit, an allegation the Prime Minister dodged on his trip to Estonia. 
• Significant damage was done to a bank in Louth this morning during an attempt to remove an ATM. 
• Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has accused the Taoiseach and Fine Gael of “political targeting” against some of his party colleagues. 
• “Ridiculous” weather warnings, inaccurate forecasts and a lack of Northern Irish coverage were among the issues raised in hundreds of complaints to Met Éireann this year. 
• Gardaí in Limerick are appealing for witnesses after a pedestrian was struck by a car in the early hours of this morning. 
• A man in his early 30s has died following a single-vehicle road traffic collision in Ballyfermot, Dublin. 
  
• A husband and wife accused of murdering their five-year-old daughter claim she fell down the stairs while they were sleeping, a Belfast court has heard.

WORLD

Boris Johnson serves Christmas lunch to British troops stationed in Estonia during a one-day visit to the Baltic country. PA Wire / PA Images PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images

#FINAL FRONTIER: US President Donald Trump has celebrated the launch of Space Force, the first new military service in the country in more than 70 years.

#BUY BACK: New Zealand authorities have said their country will be a safer place after owners handed in more than 56,000 guns during a buyback programme following a ban on assault weapons.

#BLASPHEMY: A Pakistani court has sentenced a university professor to death for blasphemy under a law that critics say is often used to target minorities and liberal activists.

PARTING SHOT

A horse that had fallen down a bog drain was rescued by emergency services in Co Longford last night following a three-hour operation. 

Sergeant is currently recuperating at the Hungry House Outside sanctuary.