Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported from the US, an immigration judge has ruled.

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

The 30-year-old has held a US permanent residency green card since 2024 and his wife is a US citizen.

Mr Khalil was detained at his Columbia apartment building in Manhattan on 8 March, as agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told him his student visa had been revoked.

It marked the first arrest in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.

Mr Khalil, who acted as a mediator between protesters and university officials during pro-Palestinian demonstrations at New York’s Columbia University last year, is not accused of breaking any laws.

But the Trump administration says noncitizens who participate in demonstrations like he has should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas”.

On Friday, immigration judge Jamee E Comans ruled that the government had the right to deport him, saying its belief that his presence posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation.

He said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable”.

Mr Khalil’s lawyers have said they plan to fight the ruling via the Board of Immigration Appeals and can also pursue an asylum case on his behalf.

The judge gave them until 23 April to seek a waiver.

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His lawyer Marc van der Hout said after the ruling: “Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponisation of immigration law to suppress dissent.”

Mr Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and holds Algerian citizenship, remains in the Louisiana immigration detention centre where federal authorities transferred him after his arrest.

His defence team has said it is seeking a preliminary injunction from the federal court in New Jersey, which would release him from custody and could block the Trump administration from arresting and detaining people for supporting Palestinian people in Gaza.

The Trump administration has been cracking down on pro-Palestinian protesters at universities across the country.

After his arrest last month, the president said: “This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it.”

There have also been protests over the arrest of Mr Khalil, including by a Jewish group against the war in Gaza who stormed Trump Tower in New York last month.

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

Investigators say they are looking into reports a large flock of birds was seen before a deadly helicopter crash in New York City.

The helicopter’s pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists, including three children, were killed in the crash in the Hudson river at around 3.17pm on Thursday.

Agustin Escobar, a Siemens executive, and his wife Camprubi Montal had booked the helicopter tour to celebrate their eight-year-old child’s birthday.

A senior New York City official named the pilot as Sean Johnson to NBC New York. He was 36, according to the Jersey City Mayor’s office.

Giving an update on the investigation into the crash, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said no initial cause had been determined.

Asked about reports a large flock of birds was seen in the area shortly before the crash, she said: “We are aware of those reports, we discussed it this morning.

“It’s something we are looking into. What I would say to the public is that if something struck you as different or made you pause, or it crossed your mind that you might want to share with our investigators, there is no downside in sharing that information with us.”

Ms Homendy said divers are still recovering parts of the helicopter from the Hudson – and revealed the pilot had logged more than 780 hours of flight time.

Earlier, New York Police commissioner Jessica Tisch said divers had recovered all those on board from the helicopter, which was upside down in the water.

“Four victims were pronounced dead on scene and two more were removed to local area hospitals, where sadly both succumbed to their injuries,” she said.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the news “devastating”.

“An unimaginable tragedy. I share the grief of the victims’ loved ones at this heartbreaking time,” he wrote on X.

Rotor blade ‘flew off’

The aircraft was on a tourist flight of Manhattan, run by the New York Helicopters company.

Witnesses described seeing the main rotor blade flying off moments before it dropped out of the sky.

Lesly Camacho, a worker at a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, said she saw the helicopter spinning uncontrollably before it slammed into the water.

“There was a bunch of smoke coming out. It was spinning pretty fast, and it landed in the water really hard,” she said.

Another witness said “the chopper blade flew off”.

“I don’t know what happened to the tail, but it just straight up dropped,” Avi Rakesh told Sky’s US partner, NBC News.

Video on social media showed parts of the Bell 206 helicopter tumbling through the air and landing in the river.

Mafalda Carvalho, from Brazil, told Sky News she took the “exact same helicopter tour” during a trip to New York just three weeks ago.

Seeing news of the crash, she said she felt “really emotional and reflective because the truth is we never know when it may be our turn… I saw the news that a whole family had lost their lives, it really made me stop and think”.

She added: “Helicopters in general aren’t the safest means of transport, right? There is always some level of risk. I enjoy, but it’s very dangerous. We never know when something might go wrong.”

The crash happened close to Pier 40 and the Holland tunnel, which links lower Manhattan’s Tribeca neighbourhood with Jersey City to its west.

Tracking service Flight Radar 24 published what it said was the helicopter’s route, with the aircraft appearing to be in the sky for 15 minutes before the crash.

Thursday’s incident comes less than three months after 67 people died when an army helicopter and American Airlines jet collided over the Potomac River in Washington DC.

Donald Trump has had his annual medical check-up, although the US president has consistently chosen to keep basic facts about his health secret.

There is no guarantee the public will be told about the health of a man who, at the age of 78, was the oldest in US history to be sworn in as president.

“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Mr Trump posted on his social media site.

He will be examined at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Washington DC, but he will have leeway over what details are released.

If history is repeated, his latest physical examination is likely to produce a flattering report that is scarce on details.

It represents the first potential opportunity to discover the status of Mr Trump’s health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July last year.

At that time, Ronny Jackson, a staunch supporter who served as his White House doctor, wrote a memo describing a gunshot wound to Mr Trump’s right ear. He once joked that the president could live to be 200 if he had a healthier diet.

Despite Mr Trump promising in a CBS interview last August that he would “very gladly” release his medical records, he never did.

During President Biden’s time in office, medical reports have typically included vital statistics like height, weight, heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol results, along with any medical symptoms. Other checks have included the vital organs and a neurological assessment.

Mr Trump has offered few details about his health over the years, despite repeatedly questioning the physical and mental capacity of his predecessor Mr Biden, who is three years older.

In 2020, President Trump contracted COVID-19. After his recovery, more details emerged that he had been sicker than he had let on.

In November 2023, Mr Trump’s doctor released a letter to coincide with Mr Biden’s 81st birthday, saying Mr Trump was in “excellent” physical and mental health.

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It said that his “physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional”, adding he had “reduced his weight”.

But there were a lot of details missing, including weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any tests.

Trump takes anti-baldness pills

During his first term in office, his first medical check-up as president included details of his daily anti-baldness pills. But subsequent medical examinations were less transparent.

In November 2019, Mr Trump underwent a medical examination which was not revealed until three days later. He would only say it was a “very routine physical”.

A year later, an examination found he was technically obese and was taking medication to treat high cholesterol.

Before Mr Trump first ran for office in 2015, the results of a medical examination were described as “astonishingly excellent” by his personal doctor.

Dr Harold Bornstein stated at the time that Mr Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

The doctor later admitted to CNN that Mr Trump had dictated those words to him.