Jewish protesters have stormed Trump Tower in the city of New York, demanding the release of a pro-Palestinian activist arrested by immigration officials.

At least 150 people poured into the building’s lobby in midtown Manhattan to demonstrate against the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, who led Columbia University protests in 2024 against Israel’s war in Gaza.

The group from Jewish Voice for Peace carried banners, wore red shirts reading “Jews say stop arming Israel” and chanted “Bring Mahmoud home now!”

Local police said 98 were arrested on charges including trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest.

Donald Trump previously described Mr Khalil, 30, who has lawful permanent resident status in the US, as “anti-American”. He is married to an American citizen.

The postgraduate student, from Columbia University’s school of international and public affairs, has been a prominent figure in the university’s pro-Palestinian student protest movement.

This week, his deportation was put on hold while his lawyers challenged his detention at an immigration detention centre in Louisiana. On Saturday, he was arrested outside his university residence in Upper Manhattan.

He has not been charged with a crime.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has claimed he has reasonable grounds to believe Mr Khalil’s activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences”.

On Thursday, Mr Khalil’s lawyers asked a federal judge to release him from immigration detention.

They argued that President Trump’s administration targeted him for deportation because of his activism, and his detention is a violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections for freedom of speech.

Separately, his lawyers asked the court to block Columbia University from sharing student disciplinary records from campus protests with a Republican-led US House of Representatives committee.

Mr Khalil’s case has become a flashpoint for Mr Trump’s pledge to deport some activists who participated in the wave of protests on US college campuses against Israel’s military assault on Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the militant group Hamas.

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Mr Trump’s administration has said pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, including at Columbia, have included support for Hamas and antisemitic harassment of Jewish students.

Last week, the administration said it cancelled grants and contracts worth about $400m (£309m) to Columbia because of what it describes as antisemitic harassment on and near the school’s campus.

Student protest organisers have said criticism of Israel and its actions is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism.

Donald Trump has said he thinks the US will annex Greenland, days after the country’s incoming prime minister said: “We don’t want to be Americans.”

During an Oval Office meeting with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, the US president was asked about his hopes to annex Greenland.

“I think that will happen,” he said. “I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man who could be very instrumental.

“You know Mark, we need that for international security. We have a lot of our favourite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful.”

Mr Trump questioned Denmark’s claim to the autonomous territory, saying Denmark was “very far away” from Greenland despite being part of the country’s kingdom.

“A boat landed there 200 years ago or something. They say they have rights to it,” Mr Trump said. “I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t think it is, actually.”

He said the US already has a military presence in Greenland and added: “Maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers going there.”

It comes after Greenland’s centre-right party won an election in a result seen as a rejection of Mr Trump’s interference in the island’s politics.

The Demokraatit party favours a slow move towards independence from Denmark – with its leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen telling Sky News on the eve of the election “we want to build our own country by ourselves”.

In his White House news briefing Mr Trump claimed the election result was very good for the US and said “the person who did the best is a very good person as far as we’re concerned.”

Mr Trump also reacted to Vladimir Putin’s remarks about Russia agreeing to an end in fighting in Ukraine, but adding “lots of questions” remain over proposals for a 30-day ceasefire.

The US president said his Russian counterpart’s statement was not complete and reiterated his willingness to talk to him, adding: “Hopefully Russia will do the right thing.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Ukraine’s partners to make sure Russia doesn’t “deceive” them over a ceasefire.

After breakthrough talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Saudi Arabia, Kyiv said it was ready to accept a proposed 30-day ceasefire with Russia.

But his nightly address on Wednesday evening, a day after the Jeddah summit, President Zelenskyy said, “we must move toward peace” – but issued a warning to allies.

“The key factor is our partners’ ability to ensure Russia’s readiness not to deceive but to genuinely end the war,” the Ukrainian leader said. “Because right now, Russian strikes have not stopped.”

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The focus has now switched to Vladimir Putin’s response to the proposed ceasefire. President Trump said the US had received “some positive messages” adding: “We have people going to Russia right now”.

However, he warned Moscow: “In a financial sense, yeah we could do things very bad for Russia, would be devastating for Russia.”

European defence ministers, meeting in Paris, said now was the time for Moscow to show it was serious about ending the war.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey was among those attending, and had a direct message for Russia’s president: “I say to president Putin, over to you, you want to talk, prove it.”

Mr Healey called on Russia to accept the ceasefire and end the war, adding, “the pressure is now on Putin”.

For his part, President Putin has been playing to his domestic audience with a visit to Kursk, where Russian troops finally seem to be gaining the upper hand against Ukrainian forces who seized territory in the Russian region last year.

Dressed in camouflage, the Russian president called for his forces to defeat the enemy and completely liberate Kursk, in remarks reported by the Interfax news agency.

He also said enemy troops captured in the region will be treated as terrorists, as Russia’s chief of the general staff told Mr Putin that Ukrainian forces in the region are surrounded.