Israelis and Palestinians have both been “absolutely traumatized” by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and the subsequent war in Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Utah Sen. Mitt Romney Friday.

“And when this conflict ends, building back from that trauma is going to be an extraordinary task,” Blinken said.

At the time of the attack, Israel and Saudi Arabia were just days away from normalizing relations, Blinken said, something he hopes might still happen.

Romney interviewed Blinken at the McCain Institute’s 2024 Sedona Forum, held Friday and Saturday in Sedona, Arizona. They discussed the war in Gaza, and the possibilities for a cease-fire, as well as the relationship between China and the U.S., and the continuing war in Ukraine.

How does Utah getting an NHL team impact the effort to land an MLB team?

Now that hockey has arrived, does it help or hurt the effort to land a Major League Baseball team in Utah?

MLB will no doubt keep an eye on how the Utah hockey club performs in a market that for decades had only the Utah Jazz and, to a lesser extent, Real Salt Lake to compete for corporate dollars and fans. Salt Lake City, almost overnight, became home to two of the “Big Four” sports leagues in the country.

“The ability to generate revenue depends not just on the size of the market, but also the size of the corporate presence in the region and the competition for the entertainment dollar,” David Carter, principal at The Sports Business Group and an adjunct professor of sport business at the University of Southern California, told the Deseret News via email.

Read more about the possibility of baseball expansion.

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