Monday, July 27, 2026


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Shuttle van sumalpok sa puno: 4 patay, 2 kritikal

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Puerto Princesa City. Apat ang nasawi at da­lawa ang nasa kritikal na kalagayan matapos maaksidente ang sinasakyan nilang shuttle van sa south national highway sa Brgy. Sta. Lucia, sa lungsod na ito sa Pa­lawan kahapon ng umaga.

Kinikilala pa ng pulisya ang mga biktima.

Ayon sa salaysay ng driver ng shuttle na si Joe­zer Lontes, 39 anyos na residente ng Brgy. Quinlogan, Quezon, Palawan, patungo sila sa Puerto Princesa City nang mangyari ang aksidente.

Binabagtas nila ang  national highway sa Brgy. Sta. Lucia nang sa pakur­bang kalsada ay dumulas ang harapang bahagi ng sasakyan bandang 7:40 ng umaga.

Sinubukan ni Lontes na bawiin ang manibela ngunit  dumiretso na ang van sa gilid ng kalsada saka sumalpok sa isang puno.

Dahil sa lakas ng pagkakabangga,nasawi ang apat sa kanyang pasahero habang kasalukuyang pang ginagamot sa ospital ang dalawang iba pa.

Napag alaman na 11 ang  sa­kay ng nasabing shuttle van nang maganap ang trahedya.

Nasa pangangalaga na ng pulisya ang driver ng van at nakatakdang humarap sa kasong reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and serious physical injury and damage to property.

2 lider ng NPA nahuli sa Oriental Mindoro

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Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro. Nahuli ng mga militar ang dalawang lider ng New People’s Army (NPA) sa isinagawang operasyon sa isang liblib na lugar sa bayang ito sa Oriental Mindoro, ayon sa report ng Philippine Army (PA) noong Sabado.

Kinilala ni Lt. Col. Hector Estolas, spokesman ng 2nd Infantry Division (ID) ng PA ang mga nahuling lider ng NPA sa mga alyas na “Ka Aryo”, second deputy secretary ng Kilusang Larangan Guerillla ng Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee Sub-Regional Military Area 4D at “Ka Louise”, supply officer ng KLG MAV Platun Serna at dating Liaison ng Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee’s Regional Staff ng NPA.

Ayon kay Estolas, sina Ka Aryo at Ka Louise ay nasakote kamakailan sa combat operation sa liblib na barangay sa nabanggit na bayan bunga ng pinaigting na opensiba ng militar.

Nakumpiska sa da­lawa ang isang UZI sub-machine gun, isang M1 Carbine rifle, mga bala, isang improvised hand grenade, 2 blasting caps, 8 mobile phones, isang mobile tablet, 2 power banks, 6 cell phone chargers, pocket wifi, 2 memory cards, 7 USB flash drives, 4 sim cards, medical supplies, mga subersibong dokumento at mga personal na kagamitan.

Ayon kay Estolas, matapos masakote ay isinailalim sa medical examination at ginamot ang dalawang opisyal ng NPA at kasalukuyan silang nasa pangangalaga ng Army’s 4th Infantry Battalion habang sumasailalim sa tactical interrogation.

Ayon sa record, ang grupo nina Ka Aryo at Ka Louise ay pinaniniwalaang sangkot sa pagpatay sa isang sundalo ng 4th IB nitong Abril 25 at dinukot din noong Pebrero 10 ang dalawang CAFGU sa Mindoro noong Abril 25 at walang awang pinatay ng mga NPA.

 ang isang sundalo na nakatalaga sa 4th IB habang dinukot naman noong Enero 26 at Pebrero 

Isa pang CAFGU ang diumano ay pinatay ng mga NPA sa kanyang bahay nito lamang Abril 3.

Ayon kay 2nd Infantry “Jungle Fighter” Division commander Maj Gen. Roberto Capulong, kasalukuyan na silang nakikipag-ugnayan sa mga kaagapay sa lokal na pamahalaan, mga sangay ng gobyerno at pangunahing mga stakeholders sa pagpapatupad ng batas.

Life-size sculpture of euthanized walrus unveiled in Norway

Helsinki. A walrus that became a global celebrity last year after it was seen frolicking and basking in an Oslo fjord before it was euthanized by the authorities has been honored with a bronze sculpture in Norway.

The life-size sculpture by Norwegian artist Astri Tonoian was unveiled Saturday at the Oslo marina not far from the place where the actual 600-kilogram (1,300-pound) mammal was seen resting and relaxing during the summer of 2022.

The walrus, named Freya, quickly became a popular attraction among Oslo residents but Norwegian authorities later made a decision to euthanize it — causing public outrage — because they said people hadn’t followed recommendations to keep a safe distance away from the massive animal.

Norwegian news agency NTB said a crowdfunding campaign was kicked off last fall to finance the sculpture. The private initiative managed to gather about 270,000 Norwegian kroner ($25,000) by October, NTB said.

Texas man kills 5 neighbors after they complained of gunfire

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Cleveland, Texas. A Texas man went next door with a rifle and fatally shot five of his neighbors, including an 8-year-old boy, after they asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said Saturday.

The suspect, identified as 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza, remained at large more than 18 hours after the shooting and authorities warned that he might still be armed. The attack happened just before midnight Friday near the town of Cleveland, north of Houston, on a street where some residents say it is not uncommon to hear neighbors unwind by firing off guns.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Oropeza used an AR-style rifle, and as the search for him dragged into Saturday evening, authorities had widened their efforts to as far as “10 to 20 miles” from the murder scene. He said Oropeza may still have a weapon but that he believes authorities have the rifle used in the shooting.

Capers said they found clothes and a phone while combing a rural area that includes dense layers of forest but that tracking dogs had lost the scent.

“He could be anywhere now,” Capers said.

Capers said the victims were between the ages of 8 and 31 years old and that all were believed to be from Honduras. All were shot “from the neck up,” he said.

The attack was the latest act of gun violence in what has been a record pace of mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, some of which have also involved semi automatic rifles.

The mass killings have played out in a variety of places — a Nashville school, a Kentucky bank, a Southern California dance hall, and now a rural Texas neighborhood inside a single-story home.

Capers said there were 10 people in the house — some of whom had just moved there earlier in the week — but that no one else was injured. He said two of the victims were found in a bedroom laying over two children in an apparent attempt to shield them.

A total of three children found covered in blood in the home were taken to a hospital but found to be uninjured, Capers said.

FBI spokesperson Christina Garza said investigators do not believe everyone at the home were members of a single family. The victims were identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.

The confrontation followed the neighbors walking up to the fence and asking the suspect to stop shooting rounds, Capers said. The suspect responded by telling them that it was his property, Capers said, and one person in the house got a video of the suspect walking up to the front door with the rifle.

The shooting took place on a rural pothole-riddled street where single-story homes sit on wide 1-acre lots and are surrounded by a thick canopy of trees. A horse could be seen behind the victim’s home, while in the front yard of Oropeza’s house a dog and chickens wandered.

Rene Arevalo Sr., who lives a few houses down, said he heard gunshots around midnight but didn’t think anything of it.

“It’s a normal thing people do around here, especially on Fridays after work,” Arevalo said. “They get home and start drinking in their backyards and shooting out there.”

Capers said his deputies had been to Oropeza’s home at least once before and spoken with him about “shooting his gun in the yard.” It was not clear whether any action was taken at the time. At a news conference Saturday evening, the sheriff said firing a gun on your own property can be illegal, but he did not say whether Oropeza had previously broken the law.

Capers said the new arrivals in the home had moved from Houston earlier in the week, but he said he did not know whether they were planning to stay there.Across the U.S. since Jan. 1, there have been at least 18 shootings that left four or more people dead, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today, in partnership with Northeastern University. The violence is sparked by a range of motives: murder-suicides and domestic violence; gang retaliation; school shootings; and workplace vendettas. (with reports from Juan A. Lozano and Paul J. Webber, AP)

Solante: Arcturus subvariant posibleng sanhi ng muling paglobo ng COVID

Posibleng dahilan ng muling pagtaas ng kaso ng COVID-19 sa Pilipinas ang Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16 o Arcturus, ayon sa isang health expert noong Biyernes.

Ang ganito ring trend ay dati ng nangyari noong pumasok ang iba pang variants sa bansa–ang BA 2 noong 2022 at BA.4 at BA.5 noong 2023, ayon kay disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante ng San Lazaro Hospital sa Maynila.

Inaasahan niyang ang bahagyang pagtaas ng mga kaso ay dulot ng XBB sublineage ng Omicron, ayon sa kanya.

“Whether it’s the XBB.1.5 or the XBB.1.16 or the other one is the XBB.1.9.1 – these are all variants of interest that there is always a possibility that they can cause increase in the cases among our population,” dagdag niya.

Nabanggit ni Solante na ang Arcturus subvariant ay “may growth advantage” kumpara sa iba pang Omicron subvariant.

Nangangahulugan na mas mabilis na dumapo sa katawan dahil sa mutations sa  spike protein, kaya mas mataas ang hawaan, paliwanag i Solante.

Gayunpaman, ang Arcturus subvariant ay hindi nakikitang magdulot ng mas matinding mga sintomas Covid-19, batay sa mga karanasan ng ibang mga bansa, ayon sa kanya.

Batay sa pinakahuling Covid-19 biosurveillance report ng Department of Health (DOH) may kabuuang 130 bagong kaso ng Omicron sub variants ang nakita sa Pilipinas. Ito ang resulta ng pinakabagong genome sequencing na sumasaklaw sa panahon ng Abril 12 hanggang 19.

Kabilang sa ulat ang nag-iisang XBB.1.16 mula sa Iloilo at gumaling na ang pasyente na ‘asymptomatic’ ayon sa DOH.

“From March 2023 onwards, XBB and its sub lineages were the most detected variant, comprising 63.06 percent of samples sequenced with assigned lineages, followed by the BA.2.3.20 and its sublineages,” ayon sa DOH .

Mula sa  130 kaso, 82 ang nauri bilang  XBB (kabilang ang 33 XBB.1.9.1 kaso, 24 kaso ng XBB.1.5 , at isang  kaso ng XBB.1.16 ), 30 bilang  BA.2.3.20, 12 na BA.5 (kabilang ang dalawang kaso ng BQ.1 ), tatlo bilang  XBC, at tatlo pang ibang  Omicron sublineages, ang pagtatapos ng DOH.

First batch ng Pinoy evacuees mula sa Sudan dumating na sa Maynila

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Maynila. Dumating na sa Pilipinas ang 17 Pinoy na inilikas mula sa Sudan, nitong Sabado, Abril 29. Sa liham, sinabi ng Department of Foreign Affairs na ang unang batch ng evacuees ay lumipad pabalik ng bansa mula sa Athens, Greece at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Dumating ang grupo pasado alas-6:30 ng gabi  sa Terminal 3 sa Pasay City sa pamamagitan ng Qatar Airways Flight No. QR 204.

Kabilang sa mga evacuees mula sa Sudan ang walong hotel workers.

Sa ulat ng Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) kinilala silang sina Myra Castro, Sherly Arciga, Arnel Nacion, Johnny Mariano, Humphrey Manipis, Jomel Mallari, Marben Prila at Vilma Loba.

Sa pagtatasa, ang DSWD, sa pamamagitan ng National Capital Region Field Office at mga social worker nito, binigyan ng psychosocial intervention ang mga repatriated Filipinos bilang paunang tulong.

Ang walo ay tumakas mula sa Khartoum, Sudan at dumating sa Greece sakay ng isang Greek military aircraft.

Noong Biyernes, lumipad palabas ng Athens, Greece at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ang 17 repatriates, kasama ang walong hotel workers, matapos ang mga representasyon sa gobyerno ng Greece sa pamamagitan ng Philippine Embassy sa Athens.

Tinanggap ng embahada ang grupo sa Athens noong umaga ng Biyernes at inayos ang kanilang paglipad pabalik ng Pilipinas sa pamamagitan ng DFA Assistance-to-Nationals Fund.

Ang iba pang siyam, kabilang ang isang sanggol, ay lumikas sa kabisera ng Khartoum sa pamamagitan ng Port Sudan kung saan sila ay sumakay sa isang C130 na eroplano ng Saudi Royal Air Force patungo sa Jeddah.

Ang Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) ang nagbigay ng repatriation ticket para sa walong manggagawa habang inayos naman ng konsulado ang paglipad ng isa pang estudyanteng evacuee.

Nag-isyu ang Philippine Consulate General sa Jeddah ng travel documents sa mga walang orihinal na pasaporte.

“The Philippine government is working round-the-clock to assist our kababayans who have left Sudan,” ayon kay DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo saidsa isang statement noong Sabado.

Sinabi ng DFA na nagtalaga na rin ng mga tauhan mula sa Department of Migrant Workers, OWWA at Department of National Defense upang palakasin ang mga pagsisikap sa paglikas.

Pinasalamatan ni Manalo ang mga dayuhang pamahalaan na nagpaabot ng tulong sa mga Pilipinong tumakas sa giyera.

Sa oras ng isinusulat ang balitang ito, 610 Filipino ang lumikas sa Khartoum, kung saan 391 ang tumatawid sa Egyptian side ng border sakay ng mga bus na charter ng Philippine Embassy sa Cairo at ng Philippine Honorary Consulate sa Sudan.

Kasalukuyang inaayos ng Embahada ang kanilang pansamantalang visa at repatriation flights sa Pilipinas, habang ang DMW at OWWA ay naghahanda para sa shelter at iba pang welfare assistance sa panahon ng transit.

“The Embassy and our DMW teams will make sure they will all be treated well onboard buses and in Cairo,” ayon kay DMW Secretary Susan Ople.

Royal Drama: King’s fractious family on stage at coronation

London. King Charles III lives in a palace, travels in a chauffeur-driven Bentley and is one of Britain’s richest men, but he’s similar to many of his subjects in one very basic way: His family life is complicated — very complicated.

There’s a second wife, an embarrassing brother, and an angry son and daughter-in-law, all with allies who aren’t shy about whispering family secrets in the ears of friendly reporters.

The new king will hope to keep a lid on those tensions when his royally blended family joins as many as 2,800 guests for Charles’ coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey. All except Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, are attending.

How Charles manages his family drama over the coming weeks and years is crucial to the king’s efforts to preserve and protect the 1,000-year-old hereditary monarchy he now embodies. Without the respect of the public, the House of Windsor risks being lumped together with pop stars, social media influencers and reality TV contestants as fodder for the British tabloids, undermining the cachet that underpins its role in public life.

Royal historian Hugo Vickers says people should look past the sensational headlines and focus on what Charles accomplishes now that he is king.

“In a sense, he sort of becomes a new man when he becomes king,” said Vickers, author of “Coronation: The Crowning of Elizabeth II.”

“Look at him as he is now, look at him the way he is approaching everything, look at his positivity and look at how right he’s been on so many issues,” he added. “Unfortunately, he had those difficult times with his marriages and some of the other issues, but we live in a very tricky era.”

The horror show came back to haunt Charles last week, when the king’s estranged younger son, Prince Harry, dropped a new round of allegations Tuesday about the royal family into the middle of the coronation buildup.

In written evidence for his invasion of privacy claim against a British newspaper, Harry claimed his father prevented him from filing the lawsuit a decade ago. The prince said Charles didn’t want to dredge up graphic testimony about his extramarital affair with the former Camilla Parker-Bowles when he was married to the late Princess Diana.

Diana was the mother of Harry and his elder brother and heir to the throne, William, the Prince of Wales. Camilla, now the queen consort, went on to marry Charles in 2005 and will be crowned alongside her husband at Westminster Abbey.

If the past is any indication, attention will now shift to body language, seating plans and even wardrobe choices during the coronation, as royal watchers look for any signs of a thaw in the family tensions.

But Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, doesn’t expect Harry to have a lot of contact with the rest of his family. In any case, Harry won’t be in the U.K. for long, so there’s not much time for fence mending.

“The stuff that we discovered (Tuesday) is really not going to help his cause,” Little said. “But, you know, will there be time to go over all that with the king and the Prince of Wales? Unlikely.”

The royal soap opera didn’t begin with the current generation of royals. After all, Edward VIII sparked a constitutional crisis in 1936 when he abdicated the throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson.

Charles’ grandfather, George VI, is credited with saving the monarchy with a life of low-key public service after he replaced his flamboyant elder brother. The late Queen Elizabeth II burnished the family’s reputation during a 70-year reign, in which she became a symbol of stability who cheered the nation’s victories and comforted it during darker times.

But Charles grew up in a different era, under the glare of media attention as deference to the monarchy faded.

He has been a controversial figure ever since the very public breakdown of his marriage to Diana, who was revered by many people for her looks and her compassion.

Diana alleged that there had been “three people” in the marriage, pointing the finger at Charles’ longtime love Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Camilla, initially reviled by Diana’s fans, has worked hard to rehabilitate her image. Her ex-husband and their children are expected to attend the coronation, with her grandsons serving as pages of honor.

She supports a raft of causes, ranging from adult literacy to protecting the victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. But even that effort has sparked tensions.

Harry claimed in his memoir “Spare” that the senior royals leaked unflattering stories about him to the news media in return for more favorable coverage, particularly to improve Camilla’s image.

At the time of their marriage in 2018, Harry and Meghan were celebrated as the new face of the monarchy. Meghan, a biracial American actress, brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to the royal family and many observers hoped she would help the Windsors connect with younger people in an increasingly multicultural nation.

Those hopes quickly crumbled amid allegations that palace officials were insensitive to Meghan’s mental health struggles as she adjusted to royal life.

Harry and Meghan walked away from frontline royal duties three years ago and moved to California, from which they have lobbed repeated critiques at the House of Windsor.

In a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey they hinted at racism in the palace, alleging that one unidentified member of the royal family had inquired about the color of their unborn son’s skin before his birth.

Harry, i n a Netflix series broadcast last year, said the episode was an example of unconscious bias and that the royal family needed to “learn and grow” so it could be “part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”

The repeated attacks led to months of speculation about whether the couple would be invited to the coronation. The palace finally answered that question two weeks ago when it announced that Harry would attend but Meghan would remain in California with their two children.

And then there is Charles’ brother Prince Andrew, who became a toxic time bomb inside the royal family when the world learned about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the financier’s long-time girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Epstein, who was convicted of sex crimes in 2008, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on a second set of charges. Maxwell was convicted last year of helping procure young girls for Epstein and is serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison in Florida.

Andrew gave up his royal duties in 2019 after a disastrous interview with the BBC in which he tried to explain away his links to Epstein and Maxwell. He was stripped of his honorary military titles and patronages as he prepared to defend a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who said she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was a teenager.

Andrew denied the allegations but settled the suit last year before it came to trial. While terms of the agreement weren’t released, The Sun newspaper reported that Charles and the late queen paid the bulk of the estimated 7 million pound ($8.7 million) settlement.

“I think it was inevitable that when Charles became king, a lot of the personal stuff would come back to haunt him,″ Little said. “I think as far as the king is concerned, he just has to shrug his shoulders and get on with the job in hand.” (AP)

Dadalhin ng DOE sa Occidental Mindoro ang mga power generator set mula sa Region 8

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Plano ng Department of Energy (DOE) na ilipat ang mga generator set sa Occidental Mindoro mula sa Eastern Visayas upang makatulong sa pag-iwas sa problema sa kuryente sa lalawigan.

Sa isang news forum noong Sabado sa Quezon City, sinabi ni DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella na ang generator sets ay makakatulong sa mahahalagang pasilidad sa isla, lalo na sa mga ospital.

“Ang tinatarget sana namin ay maglipat, at itutuloy namin ito, ng mga genset at 8 megawatts iyan galing sa Region 8 papuntang Occidental Mindoro,” ayon sa kanya.

Ang Occidental Mindoro ay may power demand na humigit-kumulang 30 megawatts ngunit ang gumaganang power plant doon ay nakakapag hatid lamang ng 7 megawatts (MW), na nagreresulta sa madalas na brownout, ayon kay Fuentebella.

Nauna dito, sinabi ng Malacañang na ang National Electrification Administration (NEA) at Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corporation (OMCPC) ay nagkasundo na patakbuhin ang tatlong power stations ng OMCPC upang tumulong sa pagtugon sa krisis ng kuryente sa lalawigan.

Ang mga power station sa Sablayan area na may kapasidad na 5-MW; Mamburao, Paluan, Sta. Cruz, at Abra de Ilog (MAPSA), 7 MW; at San Jose, Magsaysay, Rizal, Calintan (SAMARICA), 20 MW, ay tatakbo ng 24-oras para magbigay ng kuryente, ayon sa Malacañang.

Sinabi ni Fuentebella na gumagawa din ang national government ng mga hakbang upang matugunan ang parehong mga power issues na kinakaharap ng Oriental Mindoro.

“The entire island should be interconnected to the grid already so we plan to hasten. It will be hastened and I think the plan is 2026… If you look at the size of Mindoro, napakalaki ng potential niya to help the economy so we just need to make sure that we are providing quality electricity services at the right prices and interconnection is one of the strategies,” ayo sa kanya.

Idinagdag niya na tinitingnan din ng mga stakeholder kung paano maaaring magsagawa ng joint competitive selection process ang Occidental at Oriental Mindoro.

Japan to lift COVID-19 border controls before holiday week

Tokyo. Japan will lift most of its coronavirus border controls, including a requirement that entrants show proof of three vaccinations or a pre-departure negative test, beginning Saturday as the country’s Golden Week holiday season begins and a large influx of foreign tourists is expected.

All entrants with symptoms will still be required to take COVID-19 tests after arriving until May 8, and those who test positive will be placed in designated quarantine facilities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. After May 9, testing of those with symptoms will be voluntary.

Japan will also drop a special measure subjecting visitors from mainland China to random testing upon arrival that was implemented in late December when infections surged there, he said.

The government had originally planned to implement the changes on May 8, when it will downgrade the official status of the coronavirus to a common infectious disease like seasonal influenza, but decided to speed them up for the holiday season beginning Saturday.

Japan’s government dropped its requests for mask wearing in March, leaving it up to each person’s discretion. Most Japanese continue to wear them, although they are only recommended now in crowded trains, hospitals and other public spaces, and near elderly and other vulnerable people.

COVID-19 is currently categorized as a Class 2 disease along with SARS and tuberculosis, which allows restrictions on the movements of patients and their close contacts and the issuing of emergency measures by the government. Downgrading it to Class 5 will scrap those rules.

New photographs of King Charles III and Queen Camilla released ahead of coronation

New photographs of Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla have been released by Buckingham Palace on Friday. The three images were taken by photographer Hugo Burnand in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace last month.

In one photo, Charles is shown sitting in a gilded mahogany and green silk armchair from 1828, while Camilla is seated in a gilded wood and blue silk upholstered bergère dating to around 1812.

The Blue Drawing Room originally served as the palace ballroom before the present ballroom was created in 1855, according to the Buckingham Palace website.

Burnand is no stranger to the royal family, having photographed the weddings of both Charles and Camilla in 2005 and Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.

Serving as a backdrop for the photographs is the state portrait of King George V, painted after his coronation in 1911.

The coronation of Charles and Camilla will take place at Westminster Abbey in London on May 6. (LondonCNN)