There were no immediate reports of casualties, however, Senate Secretary Mark Llandro Mendoza told reporters following the chaos at the legislature in the capital Manila.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a former police chief who was the main enforcer of ex-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs,” had earlier urged people to mobilize to prevent his arrest and handover to the ICC.

The Hague-based court on Monday unsealed an arrest warrant for dela Rosa on charges of crimes against humanity, the same that 81-year-old Duterte is accused of as he awaits trial in the ICC following his transfer last year.

Dela Rosa, 64, has denied involvement in illegal killings.

“I am appealing to you, I hope you can help me. Do not allow another Filipino to be brought to The Hague,” he said in a video on Facebook from his Senate office, where he has taken refuge since Monday when placed under legislative protection.

Senate Secretary Mendoza said law enforcement officers believed to be from the National Bureau of Investigation had attempted to enter the Senate and fired as they retreated.

But NBI Director Melvin Matibag told GMA News that no agents had been deployed.

“I spoke with the (justice) minister and he told me to await instructions. We have no preparations whatsoever,” he said.

More than 10 military personnel in camouflage fatigues arrived, some carrying assault rifles, Reuters journalists saw.

The chief of the military’s public affairs office Xerxes Trinidad told Reuters the Senate had requested help to “assist them in securing the facility.”

Interior Minister Jonvic Remulla said it was unclear who fired shots and security footage would need to be checked. He said dela Rosa was safe and he assured him no arrest would be made.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr called for calm, insisting his government had no involvement in the incident and did not know who was responsible.

Marcos in a video message also said there was no instruction to arrest Senator Dela Rosa, adding: “We will get to the bottom of this.”

0:33 Ex-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte to stand trial on ‘crimes against humanity’ charges

The office of the prosecutor at the ICC referred requests for comment to the court. The court’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dela Rosa was Duterte’s top lieutenant overseeing a fierce crackdown during which thousands of alleged drug dealers were slain, with human rights groups accusing police of systematic murders and cover-ups.

Police reject the allegations and say the more than 6,000 killed in anti-drugs operations were all armed and had resisted arrest.

Activists say the real death toll may never be known, with users and small-time peddlers gunned down almost daily in mysterious slumland killings blamed on vigilantes and turf wars.

The Senate was heavily guarded throughout Wednesday, with lines of police deployed to keep the peace as protesters gathered, some calling for the arrest of dela Rosa, better known in the Philippines as “Bato,” or “rock.”

His ally, Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, said he had spoken to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who had assured him no government personnel had been involved in Wednesday’s incident.

Dela Rosa, who returned to the Senate on Monday for the first time since disappearing from public view in November, has appealed to Marcos not to hand him over to the ICC.

He has also filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court urging it to block any attempt to transfer him to The Hague. The court in a statement on Wednesday gave all parties to the petition 72 hours to respond.

Dela Rosa insists any transfer to the ICC would be illegal, as the country is no longer a signatory to the Rome Statute.

Duterte unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2018 when its prosecutor announced a preliminary examination into his anti-drugs campaign had started. The ICC says alleged crimes committed while a country was a member are under its jurisdiction.

Duterte is set to become the first Asian former head of state to go on trial at the ICC, a court he repeatedly dared to pursue him during a succession of public speeches, saying he was ready to “rot in jail” to protect his people from the drugs scourge.

He maintains his innocence, according to his legal team.

French authorities on Wednesday confined 1,700 passengers and crew to a cruise ship docked in Bordeaux after a passenger died and about 50 fell ill with suspected gastrointestinal illness (GII), otherwise known as norovirus, the Ambassador Cruise Line confirmed to Global News.

The ship, which has 1,187 guests on board, the majority of whom are British and Irish nationals, and 514 crew, arrived in the French town on Tuesday, where French health officials boarded.

1:53 ‘No sign’ of larger hantavirus outbreak: WHO

“As of 11:00 a.m. UK time on 13 May 2026, there are forty-eight active guest cases of GII onboard Ambition and one crew case,” the cruise liner told Global News in a statement.

The cause of death for the passenger, who was 90, is pending confirmation from the coroner, according to The Guardian.

The uptick in cases seems to have occurred on May 9, following embarkation in Liverpool on England’s northwest coast, the company said. The ship had departed from Belfast a day prior on a planned 14-day excursion.

Upon arrival in Bordeaux, French authorities conducted a “routine” review of the ship’s health status and records and collected samples for lab testing at Bordeaux University Hospital.

“While the investigation and testing are ongoing, all guests and crew have been instructed to remain onboard under the direction of the local shore authorities. Once clearance is granted, guests will be permitted to disembark,” the statement said.

4:34 How to manage symptoms of the highly infectious Norovirus

“We would like to reassure guests that we take any illnesses aboard our fleet extremely seriously. Enhanced sanitation and prevention protocols were immediately implemented across the ship in line with established public health procedures following the initial reports of illness,” it continued.

All shore excursions were cancelled and refunded, and medical consultations relating to GII are being provided free of charge, the cruise liner said.

The outbreak comes amid an unrelated wave of hantavirus cases believed to have originated on a cruise ship moored in Cape Verde, a small island off the coast of West Africa, and reports of norovirus aboard a Caribbean cruise.

Earlier this week, more than 100 passengers and crew members fell ill during a norovirus outbreak aboard the Caribbean Princess cruise ship, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC said that 102 passengers and 13 crew members reported becoming ill during the voyage, which took place from April 28 to May 11.

Norovirus is highly contagious and thrives in places where people gather in close quarters, making cruise ships susceptible to outbreaks, the U.S. health organization says.

According to the CDC, norovirus can be contracted from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes inflammation of the stomach or intestines, leading to stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.

The outbreak on the Caribbean Princess comes more than a month after another norovirus outbreak was reported on the cruise line’s Star Princess ship.

In March, the CDC reported that 141 passengers and 52 crew members became ill with norovirus aboard the Star Princess cruise ship. The ship left Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and made stops in the Caribbean, Honduras, Belize and the Mexican Riviera.

In April 2025, 240 people had fallen sick on the Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2, following a norovirus outbreak.

–– With files from Global News’ Katie Scott

A French woman infected in the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship is critically ill and being treated with an artificial lung, a doctor at the Paris hospital caring for the sickened passenger said Tuesday. The outbreak has now reached 11 total reported cases, 9 of which have been confirmed.

Three people on the cruise died, including a Dutch couple that health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.

The French passenger hospitalized in Paris has a severe form of the disease that has caused life-threatening lung and heart problems, said Dr. Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital.

3:47 Canadians from hantavirus-stricken cruise ship isolating in B.C.

He said the woman is on a life-support device that pumps blood through an artificial lung, providing it with oxygen and returning it to the body. The hope is that the device relieves enough pressure on the lungs and heart to give them some time to recover. Lescure called it “the final stage of supportive care.”

With the evacuation of all passengers and many crew members completed, the MV Hondius is now sailing back to the Netherlands, where it will be cleaned and disinfected.

The director of the World Health Organization said confirmed and suspected cases have only been reported among the cruise ship’s passengers or crew.

“At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general. He added: “But of course the situation could change, and given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks.”

The latest person confirmed to be infected is a Spanish passenger who tested positive for hantavirus after being evacuated from the ship, Spain’s health ministry said Tuesday. The passenger was in quarantine at a military hospital in Madrid.

Health authorities say it is the first hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates.

Argentina’s health ministry said Tuesday a team of scientific experts will be dispatched in the coming days to investigate the origin of outbreak.

A Dutch couple, identified by the WHO as the first cruise passengers infected with hantavirus, spent several months in Argentina and neighboring South American countries before boarding the cruise ship. The husband and wife later died.

1:43 Public health risk remains low in global hantavirus outbreak: WHO

Argentine officials have said the couple took a bird-watching tour that included a stop at a garbage dump where they may have been exposed to rodents carrying the infection. The health ministry said its team will investigate the landfill and other locations the couple visited where rats known to carry the virus are found, although local officials in the province where the cruise departed have challenged the theory it began there.

A total of 87 passengers and 35 crew were escorted from the ship to shore in Tenerife by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks in a carefully choreographed effort that ended Monday night.

Two aircraft arrived in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven overnight carrying Dutch nationals as well as passengers from Australia and New Zealand and crew members from the Philippines. All were placed into quarantine, according to the Dutch government.

Some crew stayed aboard the ship and set course for the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, said ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions.

1:58 Doctors reiterate hantavirus ‘very different disease’ from COVID-19

Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms — which can include fever, chills and muscle aches — usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

WHO chief Tedros has advised that returning passengers should stay in quarantine, either in their homes or in other facilities, for 42 days. He added that WHO cannot enforce its guidance, and that different countries may handle the monitoring of passengers without symptoms in different ways.

Twelve employees at a Dutch hospital where a passenger from the Hondius is being treated have to quarantine for six weeks after improperly handling bodily fluids, Radboud University Medical Center said in a statement Monday night.

The “risk of infection is low” the hospital said, but it was requiring the dozen employees to go into preventive quarantine as a “precaution.”

3:37 Three people isolating in Ontario after Hantavirus exposure

The hospital in the eastern city of Nijmegen received a passenger last week from one of the evacuation flights that landed in the Netherlands and the person has since tested positive for hantavirus.

Blood and urine from the patient should have been handled “according to a stricter procedure,” the hospital said.

The meat of the summit won’t happen until Thursday, when the leaders hold bilateral talks and a formal banquet. But the Chinese offered Trump a pomp-filled welcome, literally rolling out the red carpet for him after Air Force One landed in the Chinese capital.

The president was to be greeted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng; Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to Washington; Ma Zhaoxu, executive vice minister of foreign affairs; as well as the U.S. envoy to Beijing, David Perdue, according to the White House. The welcoming ceremony includes some 300 Chinese youths, a military honor guard and a military band.

“We’re the two superpowers,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Tuesday for the long flight to Beijing. “We’re the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second.”

While Trump likes to project a sense of strength, the visit occurs at a delicate moment for his presidency as his popularity at home has been weighed down by the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran and rising inflation as a consequence of that conflict. The Republican president is seeking a win by signing deals with China to buy more American soybeans, beef and aircraft, saying he’ll be talking with Xi about trade “more than anything else.”

The Trump administration hopes to begin the process of establishing a Board of Trade with China to address differences between the countries. The board could help prevent the trade war ignited last year after Trump’s tariff hikes, an action China countered through its control of rare earth minerals. That led to a one-year truce last October.

But Trump is visiting Beijing when Iran continues to dominate his domestic agenda. The war has led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, stranding oil and natural gas tankers and causing energy prices to spike to levels that could sabotage global economic growth. The U.S. president declared that Xi didn’t need to assist in resolving the conflict, even though Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing last week.

“We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.

4:17 Beijing trying to “confuse international opinion” through dialogue with a Taiwanese opposition party

The status of Taiwan also will be a major topic as China is displeased with U.S. plans to sell weapons to the self-governing island that the Chinese government claims as part of its own territory.

Trump told reporters Monday that he would be discussing with Xi an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan that the U.S. administration authorized in December but has not yet begun fulfilling. The arms package is the largest ever approved for Taiwan.

But the U.S. leader has demonstrated greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, an approach that’s raising questions about whether Trump could be open to dialing back support for the island democracy.

At the same time, Taiwan — as the world’s leading chipmaker — has become essential for the development of AI, with the U.S. importing more goods so far this year from Taiwan than China. Trump has sought to use Biden-era programs and his own deals to bring more chipmaking to America.

The Chinese Communist Party’s news outlet, People’s Daily, published a strongly worded editorial ahead of Trump’s arrival underscoring that Taiwan is “the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-U.S. relations” and is “the biggest point of risk” between the two nations.

1:38 World braces for energy shortages as Trump blasts Iran’s proposal to end war

Trump was already portraying the trip as a success before he even left White House grounds. He openly mused about Xi’s planned reciprocal visit to the U.S. later this year, lamenting that the White House ballroom under construction would not be completed in time to properly fete the Chinese leader.

“We’re going to have a great relationship for many, many decades to come,” Trump said of the U.S. and China.

Trump embarked on Air Force One for the big meeting with a coterie of aides, family members and business world titans, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. While en route to Beijing, he posted on social media that his “first request” to Xi during the visit will be to ask the Chinese leader to bolster the presence of U.S. firms in China.

“I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic, and help bring the People’s Republic to an even higher level!” wrote Trump, who is expected to receive a formal ceremonial greeting when he arrives in the Chinese capital on Wednesday evening.

Despite Trump’s outward confidence, China appears to be entering the meeting from “a much stronger place,” said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser on Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

China would like to reduce tech restrictions on accessing computer chips and find ways to reduce tariffs, among other goals.

“But even if they don’t get much on any of those things, as long as there’s not a blow-up in the meeting and President Trump doesn’t go away and look to re-escalate, China basically comes out stronger,” Kennedy said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met on Wednesday to discuss economic and trade issues at Incheon International Airport, just west of the South Korean capital Seoul, according to the Chinese state run Xinhua News Agency.

7:55 The implications of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran

Trump also intends to raise the idea of the U.S., China and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the trip. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.

The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved, and modernized” deal that includes China.

The Pentagon estimates China has more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and will have over 1,000 by 2030.