House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) instructed committee staff to refer to the Israeli-occupied West Bank by its Hebrew name Judea and Samaria, according to a copy of an internal committee memo obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The international community, including the U.S. government, refers to the territory Israel occupied in 1967 as the West Bank and doesn't recognize Israeli sovereignty there. Roughly 3 million Palestinians and half a million Jewish settlers live in the West Bank.

• Changing the terminology the committee uses is a symbolic move that reflects the support among many Republicans in Congress for recognizing Israeli sovereignty there.
• The occupation in the West Bank and the Jewish settlements that were built against international law are a politically charged and controversial issue in Israel.
• While the settler lobby and the governing coalition support expanding settlements and annexing the territory, other parts of Israeli society oppose it.

Driving the news: A source with direct knowledge of Mast's directive said the congressman sent the memo to the 50 Republican staffers on the committee on Tuesday. It is not binding for the Democratic staffers.

• He wrote that "in recognition of our unbreakable bond with Israel and the inherent right of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, the House Foreign Affairs committee will, from here forward, refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria in formal correspondence, communication and documentation."
• Mast wrote that "Jewish roots in this region span centuries," and "as representatives of the American people, we must do our part to stem this reprehensible tide of antisemitism and recognize Israel's rightful claim to the cradle of Jewish civilization."

Between the lines: The Israeli government has never annexed the West Bank or officially applied Israeli law to this territory.

• The Israeli government and Prime Minister Netanyahu still use the term the West Bank in addition to using Judea and Samaria.

What to watch: During his press conference with Netanyahu three weeks ago, President Trump was asked by an Israeli reporter whether he "supports Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria areas."

• Trump said the White House is discussing the issue but hasn't taken a position yet.
• "But we will be making an announcement probably on that very specific topic over the next four weeks," he said.

Federal workers who didn't respond to Elon Musk's request to outline what they did at work "are on the bubble," President Trump said during the first Cabinet meeting of his second term.

Why it matters: Trump's comments came as he was flanked by every one of his confirmed agency heads, including some whose departments' explicitly told their federal employees not to respond to Musk's email last week.

• Musk, who spoke Wednesday before any member of Trump's Cabinet, said that he received the president's permission to send the email to federal employees requesting they outline the five things they accomplished.
• Musk had said failure to respond to his email would be treated as a resignation.

Driving the news: "Those million people that haven't responded though, Elon, they are on the bubble ... I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it, they haven't responded," Trump said.

• "Those people are on the bubble as they say, maybe they're gonna be gone," Trump added.

Go deeper: Jolted Republicans beg Elon Musk to ease up with DOGE

Editor's note: This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

President Trump confirmed on Wednesday that the U.S. and Ukraine have reached a minerals deal and that he still expects Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelensky to visit the White House on Friday.

• Comments from Zelensky earlier on Wednesday had seemed to put the deal and the visit in doubt.

Why it matters: The deal is designed to allow the U.S. to tap into Ukraine's minerals and other natural resources and establish a joint fund for rebuilding Ukraine. It has the potential to reduce tensions between the U.S. and Ukraine after a public squabble last week.

What they're saying: "It is going to be a very big agreement on rare earths and other things. It has all been worked out. We are happy about it. We will also make a deal with Russia and Ukraine about stopping killing people," Trump said.

• Trump confirmed Zelensky would visit the White House on Friday for a signing ceremony. That would be the first meeting between the two leaders since Trump assumed office.
• Zelensky had told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday that while a framework had been agreed, key details of the agreement still needed to be worked out.
• He also said his team was discussing a visit to Washington but suggested the timing was uncertain. Trump first announced the visit on Tuesday.

What to watch: Zelensky has repeatedly argued that Ukraine needs U.S. security guarantees as part of any deal.

• Trump said during Wednesday's Cabinet meeting that it was up to Europe, not the U.S., to make security guarantees.
• But he said the minerals deal would help ensure Ukraine's security because U.S. workers would be in Ukraine and "nobody is going to be messing around with around with our people when we are there."
• Trump also endorsed the idea of a European peacekeeping force that has been floated by the U.K. and France.

For decades, what went on behind the walls of the Sednaya military prison in Syria was largely hidden from the world. But after Bashar al-Assad lost power in 2024, droves of inmates were released. They are now sharing the horrors they experienced in the country's deadliest and most violent prison.

• A Department of Energy employee took the federal government's "fork in the road" offer.
• He said the resignation process was rushed. He's doubtful he'll be paid through September, as promised.
• Some 75,000 federal workers have accepted the deferred resignation program, the administration said.

When a program manager at the Department of Energy received the Trump administration's "fork in the road" resignation offer, his first reaction was defiance.

"My initial thought process was, 'I am not going to do this because I don't want to let them win. They can fire me, but I'm not leaving,'" the DOE program manager told Business Insider, adding that they wanted to stay and protect a clean energy program they oversaw. "But it became pretty demoralizing and clear that wasn't a realistic option."

The DOE employee said they decided to take the buyout offer — known as deferred resignation — in February after his eight-person team was "decimated" and it seemed unlikely that the department's career leadership could shield employees from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's efforts to slash the federal workforce and eliminate climate- and DEI-related programs.

The DOE employee requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation. BI verified the DOE employee's identity and also viewed their signed deferred resignation agreement.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, about 75,000 federal workers had accepted the offer as of February 13. That's about 3.75% of the federal workforce, shy of the White House's goal of 5% to 10%. Since then agencies have fired thousands of workers, mainly probationary employees who have been hired or promoted in the last two years — moves that have attracted legal challenges.

The DOE employee said he was impressed by how many federal workers wanted to stay in their jobs because they care about public service. He worried that the Trump administration's gutting of federal agencies would fuel their narrative that the government is inefficient and ineffective, a view he disagreed with.

"Trump and Musk are creating those conditions by removing staff and pausing grants and requiring them to remove all the DEI efforts," the DOE employee said. "Before, things were functioning decently well."

3 strikes and he's out

The beginning of the Trump administration brought three events that tipped the scales for this DOE employee.

First, right after the inauguration, Trump signed executive orders that paused his team's work because it paused funding authorized by Congress under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Those two laws are former President Joe Biden's landmark climate accomplishments.

Second was what he saw as mistreatment of his colleagues. The DOE fired probationary employees on his team who'd been on the job less than a year. Even if their work resumed in the coming months, the DOE employee said he's not sure there'd be enough staff to implement it. The DOE employee also disagreed with directives to remove pronouns from federal e-mail signatures.

"I wasn't willing to do that because it created a hostile work environment for the people who worked for me," he said.

Finally, the DOE employee is remote and thought he would eventually be fired if he refused to return to the office as directed by Trump's executive order.

'I'm almost positive I won't get paid through September'

The DOE employee described the deferred resignation process as rushed and lacking clear guidance.

He submitted his request to the Office of Personnel Management and then signed a four-page agreement with the DOE. The agreement said he would be placed on administrative leave until September 30 and be paid his current salary, "subject to the availability of appropriations."

The DOE employee said he didn't know he had to request administrative leave until he had already been locked out of federal computer systems. His last day was Feb 21, and his pay is bi-weekly. His first paycheck for administrative leave should arrive in the coming weeks.

"I'm questioning whether the administration will fulfill the agreement," the DOE employee said. "I am almost positive that I will not get paid through September."

'It's a tough job market'

The DOE employee said he plans to start applying for jobs in case the Trump administration doesn't hold up the agreement.

But that presents other risks. The deferred resignation agreement requires federal workers who take another job to get approval from the Ethics Counsel regarding "outside activity," and the DOE employee said it's unclear whether those requests will be approved.

Ideally, he could find a position in clean energy that pays a similar amount as his federal job so he could leave the deferred resignation program altogether. The DOE employee falls on a payscale ranging from $123,000 to nearly $160,000 a year.

"I think it's a tough job market," the DOE employee said, adding that clean energy companies and organizations might not be hiring right now given the Trump administration's attacks and the uncertainty about grant funding.

"The prospects of working in clean energy — the thing I care about — seem terrible at the moment."

The DOE employee said many companies and nonprofits are also still waiting for their federal grant funding to be unfrozen.

"It's an anxious time," he said. "Where can I go that takes advantage of my skills but also has some sort of longevity?"

Do you have a story to share about the deferred resignation program? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or Signal at cboudreau.37. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Slack, the popular workplace communications app, is experiencing issues as of Wednesday morning.
• Slack's status page lists "incidents" with login and messaging.
• The company said it was working to restore functionality to affected users.

Your colleagues aren't ignoring you — Slack is experiencing issues.

Some people using the popular workplace communication platform were unable to log in or message on Wednesday morning.

At 10:27 a.m. ET, Slack said it was "investigating reports of trouble connecting or loading Slack."

"We're still working to restore functionality to affected Slack features but have also discovered some workflows may also be experiencing issues," Slack said in a follow-up message.

"We appreciate your patience as we sort this out and will be back with another update soon," it added.

Slack's system page listed an "incident" status on multiple features, including the platform's login and messaging.

Slack users also reported issues to third-party outage-tracking website DownDetector, which saw a spike in reports.

Slack and Microsoft Teams are two of the top workplace communication platforms used by many companies to communicate quickly. In 2022, Slack said that 77 of Fortune 100 companies used its platform.

Hailed as an "email killer," Slack went public in 2019 and was acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 billion in a deal that closed in 2021.

• I attended the opening of the first Applebee's and IHOP dual-branded restaurant in Seguin, Texas.
• It's the first restaurant of its kind in the United States, though the concept has worked abroad.
• Dine Brands CEO John Peyton said the restaurant will hopefully attract younger customers.

Chain restaurants are betting big on value and choice to attract younger customers amid declining sales across the casual dining industry.

The latest example is the opening of the first dual-branded Applebee's and IHOP restaurant in the US.

The first-of-its-kind restaurant, which opened on February 18, is located off the side of a major highway in Seguin, Texas, about halfway between San Antonio and Austin.

It's rare for chain restaurants to try something completely new.

New menu items often come and go as mere trends, and with many chains focusing on nostalgia instead of rebranding, they're sticking with what has already proven successful rather than taking a risk on a new restaurant concept.

Chili's popular Triple Dipper, for example, went viral last year and accounted for 14% of the chain's total sales in the second quarter, but it has actually been a menu staple for years — although it recently got a refresh with spicier flavors for its chicken tenders and extra-cheesy fried mozzarella.

But from the moment I walked into the newly designed Applebee's-IHOP restaurant, I could tell this experience would be completely different from any visit I'd had at either chain before.

The new restaurant concept is poised to appeal to a younger audience, a priority for Dine Brands, the parent company of Applebee's and IHOP.

CEO John Peyton told Business Insider that Gen Z's tastes were a key consideration before introducing the Applebee's-IHOP hybrid in the US.

"They love spicy, they love to share, they love to sample, they like to have choice. And so all of those things are important inspirations for how we think about designing our menus and new ideas," Peyton told BI ahead of the restaurant's grand opening.

"Guests never had the opportunity to have two people at dinner have an omelet and two people have a Bourbon steak, or mix and match," he continued. "That new level of choices you can make here is exactly what we think our younger guests are looking for."

Here's what it was like to eat at the hybrid Applebee's-IHOP restaurant.

The first Applebee's and IHOP dual-branded restaurant opened in Seguin, Texas, in February.

This is the first Applebee's-IHOP restaurant concept in the US, with both brands operating in the same space, dining room, and kitchen.

There are 13 dual-branded restaurant locations across Canada, Mexico, Honduras, and the Middle East.

Peyton told Business Insider the restaurant concept improves customers' experience.

"For our guests, it enables a lot more choice," he said. "We already see overseas, they're ordering from both sides of the menu. The other thing it does for our guests is we've created items on this menu that are only available at the dual-branded restaurants."

The company said it plans to open 14 more dual-branded locations in the US in the next year, both by updating existing single-branded IHOP and Applebee's locations and building completely new locations that reflect the new Applebee's-IHOP brand.

Inside, there were homages to both brands throughout the dining room.

Peyton said this location was previously just an IHOP, but it has been renovated to suit both brands.

In addition to a large dining room with booth and table seating, there's also a bar area with screens for sports games like you'd find in an Applebee's.

A large greenery-covered wall in the back showed off both brands' logos.

The design of the restaurant was clean and modern, something I personally have rarely experienced at chains like Applebee's or TGI Fridays, which tend to have a moodier, more classic bar-and-grill feel with dim overhead lighting and deeper colors like red throughout.

Dine Brands partnered with the Ramzi Hakim Group, led by vice president Danny Hakim, as the franchisee for the first Applebee's-IHOP restaurant.

"These are the new looks for both IHOP and Applebee's," Danny Hakim told BI. "We are very excited to release these looks across the board."

Nation's Restaurant News reported that the Hakim group has been operating IHOP franchises in the San Antonio area since 1991.

Over the years, the group has expanded to 37 IHOP locations and recently added nine Applebee's restaurants to its portfolio. The group plans to open five more dual-branded restaurants this year.

"They're great innovators and they know that this is a test-and-learn restaurant," Peyton told BI. "This is No. 1 in the US, and we're both aligned in the fact that the next one we build might not look and feel exactly like this one. We're going to learn together and make changes together."

There's just one menu, which includes favorite dishes from both chains as well as items exclusive to the dual-branded restaurant.

The menu includes popular dishes from both Applebee's and IHOP menus, plus five dishes available only at the hybrid restaurant.

Breakfast is served all day and night, and the restaurant itself operates from 5 a.m. until 1 a.m. every day, so restaurants that convert from a single-brand concept gain more hours in the morning and at night to serve customers.

"IHOP owns the morning, and Applebee's owns dinner," Peyton said. "It was an IHOP franchisee who was busy in the morning and quiet at night. This activates the restaurant all day long. Their economics are so much better."

I was surprised by the affordable prices on the menu, from egg dishes to appetizers.

The chain's omelets were all priced under $15, and the build-your-own omelet started at $10.29, which I thought was an affordable price point.

The chain's sirloin steak and eggs, which includes an 8-ounce steak, three eggs, and two pancakes, cost $19.99, which I thought was reasonable.

Peyton said that winning over cost-conscious customers is something every chain is thinking about, and also this year's biggest challenge.

"The casual dining customer is really managing their wallet closely," he said. "Applebee's and IHOP are working really hard to be relevant to our guests at a time when we know they're thinking a lot about their wallet."

For many chains, that fight for value-conscious customers is an uphill battle.

Applebee's year-over-year same-restaurant sales declined 5.9% in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same quarter the year before, while IHOP's declined 2.1%.

Peyton said that the word value "is thrown around a lot," but could be key to winning over customers and boosting revenue.

"It's important that we don't lose sight of the fact that value's got a very specific definition for us, which is great food, a really generous portion, and great service at an accessible price," he said, adding that "we have to focus on those four things to yield to our guests more than ever in 2025."

I started my meal with a mimosa.

One of the biggest draws of this new restaurant concept is a full bar menu, which includes brunch cocktails like mimosas, a bloody mary, and espresso martinis, plus all the classic cocktails and brews you'd expect to find at an Applebee's.

The Good Morning Mimosa, made with IHOP orange juice and Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée, cost $8.99.

It was light and fresh, and the perfect start to the morning.

I also tried the chain's Ultimate Breakfast Burger, which is exclusive to this restaurant concept.

Applebee's is known for its burgers, while IHOP does breakfast. Therefore, it made sense for both chains to combine for an elevated breakfast burger.

The burger, which cost $13.99, reminded me of a classic New York deli favorite: a bacon, egg, and cheese with a hash brown sandwiched into it.

The burger was moist and cooked perfectly medium-rare, while the hash browns added a salty, savory flavor.

I thought the egg added even more moisture to this sandwich, as did the bright and tangy poblano hollandaise sauce. The bacon was crispy and added a deep smoky flavor, balanced by a soft, fluffy bun. I would definitely order this again.

It was a standard breakfast sandwich kicked up a notch — paired with seasoned fries, this burger set me up for the day.

The concept of exclusive menu items that can only be ordered at dual-branded Applebee's-IHOP restaurants could easily appeal to Gen Z customers, who love limited-time offers and menu hacks.

I finished my meal on a sweet — and affordable — note.

The strawberry waffle sundae, which includes two Belgian waffle pieces, glazed strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream, cost $2.99.

The sundae had the ideal amount of sweetness.

The waffles' crispy texture was balanced by the sweet and flavorful vanilla ice cream, and the strawberries added a tart bite to the dish.

I couldn't help but be impressed by the meal and the overall restaurant concept.

While the first restaurant may be located in a small Texas city, I could see this concept working well in larger metropolitan areas with a younger, more brunch-obsessed crowd.

Brunch, which can sometimes be seen as an upscale meal, needs to be accessible when people are tightening their budgets. As a member of Gen Z myself, I was sold on the concept.

I was impressed by the restaurant's affordable pricing and extensive menu selection. With options ranging from burgers and eggs Benedict to omelets and steak dinners, there was something to satisfy any craving.

I look forward to seeing the chain expand with new locations in the coming year.