noontime

The noontime burial was sunny but not hot.

The sound of a vehicle backfiring spooked a circus elephant while she was getting a pre-show bath in Butte, Montana, leading the pachyderm to break through a fence and take a brief walk, stopping noontime traffic on the city’s busiest street before being loaded back into a trailer.

Schools in several cities, including the congested capital Manila, shifted classes to early morning to avoid sweltering noontime and afternoon temperatures.

The following day marks the Easter Vigil, during which Francis presides over a solemn nighttime service in the basilica, followed by Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square and his noontime blessing from the loggia above.

Navalny had floated the noontime concept on Feb. 1, saying it was a “completely legal and safe” way to protest and that authorities would have no way of countering it.