[Music] at every speed and in every imaginable color and flavor life in 2024 hurtled directly at us dizzying unremitting challenging the human race to make sense of it and behind it all some unspoken questions how do you stop time how do you preserve moments how do you absorb what needs to be remembered this year Associated Press photographers across the world captured 2024’s vast catalog of events from breaking news to intimate moments both quiet and exuberant through their lenses we saw a pope alone in his chair contemplating lava flowing across a burning landscape in Iceland a former president of the United States thrusting his fist Skyward after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt we were able to gaze from a distance and to get right in front of fascinating faces we saw how people across the planet elected each other loved each other broke bread with each other competed against each other in the most prestigious of forums we saw them pray for and with each other kill each other