Former President Donald Trump put out a statement on Friday saying that Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be "tried for treason" — a crime punishable by death — for taking steps to prevent a war with China during the Trump presidency.

In his lengthy statement, Trump skewered the contents of the book "Peril" by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa and called Milley "one of the dumber generals in the military."

"Does anybody really believe that longtime Con Man Bob Woodward, and his lightweight lapdog assistant Robert Costa, are implying in their book of fiction that I was planning to go to war with China, but that one of the dumber generals in the military called the Chinese to tell them that he will inform them if this action proceeds further," the statement said. "Milley may have called, but if so, he should be tried for treason."

"I never had even a thought of going to war with China, other than the war I was winning, which was on TRADE," Trump added.

Merck said Friday updated data from a study on its experimental COVID-19 pill showed the drug is less effective than initially reported.

Driving the news: The drugmaker said molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization or death for patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 by about 30%, based on a study of more than 1,400 adults. Last month, the company said the study showed about 50% efficacy, based on data from 775 patients.

What they're saying: Merck said in a statement Friday the interim analysis and additional analyses still "support the efficacy and overall favorable benefit-risk assessment of molnupiravir for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults at high risk for disease progression."

What to watch: Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics submitted an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the drug in October.

Details: Overall, an estimated 53.4 million people are traipsing through airports or sitting in traffic jams this Thanksgiving weekend, says AAA — very close to 2019 levels. And there's evidence people are stretching out their holiday travel, and planning more trips before year-end.

Airbnb says bookings for long-term stays during the holidays are up nearly nearly 70% in the U.S., compared to the same time in 2019.
It expects that trend to extend past New Year’s into 2022.

CLEAR, which runs biometric security kiosks at many airports, says the median trip length of its members has doubled in 2021 vs. 2019.

The extended holiday travel is driven, in part, by people blending travel and work.

Working vacationers plan to take twice as many trips, and to stay longer, than those who intend to disconnect for the holidays, according to a Deloitte survey.

A person suspected of being armed with a knife was fatally shot on Friday by personnel at an entrance to San Diego's Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD).

The shooting occurred at the MCRD's main visitors’ entrance shortly before noon local time when a vehicle attempted to enter the base at its gate 5 checkpoint, according to a local San Diego news station, Fox 5.

Employees from the base asked the vehicle to stop, but the person exited their vehicle and allegedly approached the employees with a knife, Fox 5 reported.

MCRD officials said the person had “hostile intent,” and the person was shot by base personnel after being given several warnings, Fox 5 added.

Sixty-one COVID-19 cases were detected on an international flight from South Africa to the Netherlands on Friday, according to Dutch health officials.

The cases were detected among passengers on two flights that arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Friday as authorities were conducting testing for the recently discovered Omicron variant of the coronavirus, Reuters reported.

A total of 600 people were on the flights that arrived from South Africa. They were kept away from other travelers in the airport, and those who tested positive for coronavirus are being isolated in the airport, officials told the news outlet on Saturday.

According to a Dutch health ministry spokesperson, passengers' health information and specifically whether or not any of the passengers were infected with the new Omicron variant will remain private until later on Saturday, Reuters reported.

ALBANY, N.Y. — No one dared tell Andrew Cuomo how terrible they thought his idea was.

In the summer of 2020, with Cuomo at the height of his pandemic-inflated fame, the then-governor of New York suggested that the state health department deploy half its roughly 5,000 employees to check restaurants for their compliance with the state's mask-wearing and capacity limit rules. Cuomo wanted to tout the number of tickets issued for noncompliance during his nationally televised news briefings, according to a former administration official who was on a call when the governor floated the idea.

“He was like, ‘You could use them like an army,’” said the official, who worked on the state’s pandemic response and requested anonymity to speak freely.

The governor's proposal — “an impossible request” — baffled the official, whose account was confirmed by another person familiar with the plan. But, the official said, "the call ended and no one said ‘no’ to him ... No one could explain to him how bad the idea was."

New Zealand will reopen to most international travelers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 next year, in a gradual lifting of border restrictions that have been in place since March 2020.

Why it matters: NZ imposed some of the world's toughest pandemic measures and largely contained the virus to managed hotel quarantine facilities for returning New Zealand residents. Its economy had rebounded before Delta arrived in August and domestic restrictions returned.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's government has since moved to replace its COVID-19 elimination strategy with one focused on high coronavirus vaccination rates.

The big picture: COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told a briefing Wednesday that from 11:59pm on Jan. 16, fully vaccinated New Zealanders and other eligible travelers can travel to NZ from Australia without staying in quarantine facilities, though there are negative test requirements.