A better understanding of the

An Israeli woman grieves, the deep lines of wrinkles stark as she thinks of a man killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel whose body the militants spirited away into the Gaza Strip.And in Gaza itself, children weep, their faces confronted in terror as they cover their ears after yet another Israeli bombardment of the besieged strip against the Mediterranean Sea.

A bomb dropped from an Israeli jet hits a building in Ghobeiri, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)A bomb dropped from an Israeli jet hits a building in Ghobeiri, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)Mourners grieve at the funeral of Michel Nisenbaum, who was killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and whose body was taken into Gaza, in Ashkelon, Israel, on Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Mourners grieve at the funeral of Michel Nisenbaum, who was killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and whose body was taken into Gaza, in Ashkelon, Israel, on Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)Palestinian children are evacuated from a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian children are evacuated from a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Across the Middle East this year, Associated Press photographers froze these moments in time, reflections of the wars and their horrors that have upended life across the region.UCLA was down to its last out against South Carolina in Game 2 before winning, then took Game 3. The Bruins could add to their record 12 World Series titles.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis Police Chiefvividly remembers receiving a call around midnight from a community activist. The caller told him to watch a video spreading on social media of a white officer pinning a Black man to the ground, despite his fading pleas of “I can’t breathe.”

And Arradondo was the city’s first Black police chief.“It was absolutely gut-wrenching,” Arradondo, 58, recalled in an interview ahead of the fifth anniversary of