Former President Trump is in advanced talks to sell rights to his Trump International Hotel in Washington, sources tell Jonathan Swan and Dan Primack.

• Why it matters: The removal of Trump’s brash, golden branding from Pennsylvania Avenue would carry a symbolism savored by opponents.

The historic building, the 122-year-old Old Post Office, became a prop and symbol for both sides in the political wars.

• The hotel was a central setting during his chaotic presidency —Trump preening at his personal table, and supporters and supplicants thronging the lobby bar and restaurants to curry favor.

How it would work: Trump would sell the leasing rights to a real estate developer, who in turn would negotiate with hotel companies that would manage the property and rebrand it.

• Details of the talks aren't yet known, and we're told the sale could take a while. Trump declined to comment.

The backstory: The Old Post Office is federal property that Trump leased in 2013 for 60 years from the General Services Administration, the federal landlord. So he has 50+ years left.

The Trump Organization has been paying $250,000 a month in base rent, GSA said in 2017. The rent was to rise with inflation.

• Ethics and contract experts called upon GSA to end the 60-year lease after Trump was elected and became, in effect, both tenant and landlord, NPR noted. But GSA upheld the deal.

Trump’s hotels and golf resorts have been hit hard by the COVID shutdowns that have walloped the hospitality industry.

• For Trump properties, the hit was worsened by his lost heat after his 2020 defeat.
• When Trump left office, The Washington Post reported that the D.C. hotel had a $170 million loan outstanding, and had seen revenue drop more than 60 percent compared to the previous year.

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Thousands of Afghans are waiting at U.S. bases in Germany, Italy and Spain — and those countries want to know they will end up in the U.S. before they commit to resettling additional Afghan refugees, Axios' Stef Kight and Zachary Basu report.

• Why it matters: EU leaders are desperate to avoid a repeat of the migrant crisis ignited by the Syrian civil war, which drove a record 1.3 million people to seek asylum in Europe in 2015 alone.

"They really have a lot of concerns," European Commissioner of Home Affairs Ylva Johansson told Axios in an interview.

• "I don't want to have a 'Fortress Europe,'" she stressed. "And that's why we should not wait until we have migrants at our external borders."

21,300 Afghan evacuees are in the U.S. European Command region as of yesterday, EUCOM spokesperson Chuck Prichard told Axios.

• 17,000 were at U.S. military sites in Germany, 2,500 were in Italy and 1,800 were in Spain, although the numbers fluctuate daily.

Evacuees are staying for only a few days before heading to the U.S., Prichard said.

• State Department spokesman Ned Price on Thursday declined to say what would happen to Afghan evacuees in third countries who failed the security vetting process to enter the U.S.

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"The subway system is not a submarine."

Why it matters: "Flash flooding in New York City this week caused the subways to shut down, raising concerns about the system’s resilience to climate change," The New York Times reports (subscription).

President Biden, aboard Marine One, inspects damage from Hurricane Ida during a flyover of the Louisiana coast, including Lafitte, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish.

• 14 deaths were blamed on the storm in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including three nursing home residents who were evacuated, along with hundreds of other seniors, to a warehouse.

In the aftermath, 50 people were killed from Virginia to Connecticut.

• 25 of those were in New Jersey — more than in any other state. At least a third of the Garden State fatalities were people who drowned after being trapped in vehicles, the NYT reports.

The annual Tribute in Light was tested in Manhattan last night (seen here from Jersey City), ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, a week from today.

Angela Merkel has been the face of European leadership, a global power broker, a force for stability and a trusted friend to multiple U.S. presidents.

• Now she’s about to hand over the keys to Europe’s economic powerhouse and one of the world’s most respected countries, Axios World editor Dave Lawler writes.

Merkel is easily the longest-serving leader of a major Western democracy.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is one of the few contemporaries now set to outlast her.

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Naomi Osaka, pausing every so often as her eyes filled with tears, said last night she's thinking about taking another break from tennis, AP reports.

• "I feel like for me, recently, when I win, I don't feel happy, I feel more like a relief. And then when I lose, I feel very sad," Osaka, 23, said at a news conference at the U.S. Open.

Her comments followed a 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-4 loss at Flushing Meadows to Leylah Fernandez, an 18-year-old from Canada who is ranked 73rd and never had been this far in Grand Slam competition. "

• "This is very hard to articulate," Osaka continued. "I feel like I'm kind of at this point where I'm trying to figure out what I want to do, and I honestly don't know when I'm going to play my next tennis match."

Crying, she lowered her black visor over her eyes.

• "Yeah," Osaka added as she rose to leave, "I think I'm going to take a break from playing for a while."