President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are appearing together for the first time since she lost the presidential election to Republican Donald Trump.

Biden and Harris are participating in the annual Veterans Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. They laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Biden was among officials delivering remarks at the amphitheater.

It was also Harris’ first public appearance since last Wednesday when the Democratic vice president delivered a speech at her alma mater Howard University in which she conceded the election to Trump.

The Kremlin on Monday rejected reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke last week with President-elect Donald Trump about the war in Ukraine, and a spokesman for Trump refused to comment on what he called his “private calls” with world leaders.

The Washington Post first reported Sunday, citing anonymous sources, that the two spoke Thursday, with Trump advising Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and cited the sizable U.S. military presence in Europe.

In a conference call Monday with journalists, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said “there was no conversation” and the report was “completely untrue, it is pure fiction.”

Asked about the report, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said, “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”

▶ Read more about Trump and Putin

Faced with two choices she didn’t like, Suehaila Amen chose neither.

Instead, the longtime Democrat from the Arab American stronghold of Dearborn, Michigan, backed a third-party candidate for president, adding her voice to a remarkable turnaround that helped Donald Trump reclaim Michigan and the presidency.

In Dearborn, where nearly half of the 110,000 residents are of Arab descent, Vice President Kamala Harris received over 2,500 fewer votes than Trump, who became the first Republican presidential candidate since former President George W. Bush in 2000 to win the city. Harris also lost neighboring Dearborn Heights to Trump, who in his previous term as president banned travel from several mostly-Muslim countries.

Harris lost the presidential vote in two Detroit-area cities with large Arab American populations after months of warnings from local Democrats about the Biden-Harris administration’s unwavering support for Israel in the war in Gaza. Some said they backed Trump after he visited a few days before the election, mingling with customers and staff at a Lebanese-owned restaurant and reassuring people he would find a way to end the violence in the Middle East.

▶ Read more about the election and Arab Americans

“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump said in a statement. “Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter.”

Stefanik, 40, serves as House Republican Conference Chair and has long been one of Trump’s most loyal allies in the House.

Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP nomination, was among those who previously held the role in his first term.

The election of Republican Kelly Ayotte as New Hampshire’s governor means 13 women will serve as a state’s chief executive next year, breaking the record of 12 set after the 2022 elections.

Governors hold powerful sway in American politics, shaping state policy and often using the experience and profile gained to launch campaigns for higher offices.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was floated as a potential Democratic nominee for president after President Biden exited the race. Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was thought to be in the running for President-elect Donald Trump’s vice presidential post.

Ayotte, a former U.S. senator, defeated the Democratic nominee Joyce Craig, a former mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city.

Still, 18 states have never had a woman in the governor’s office.

▶ Read more about this historic record

Trump gained a larger share of Black and Latino voters than he did in 2020, when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and most notably among men under age 45, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters.

Even as Democrat Kamala Harris won majorities of Black and Latino voters, it wasn’t enough to give the vice president the White House, because of the gains Trump made.

The vice president’s losses with these groups largely became Trump’s gains as he locked down his traditionally older, white base and slightly expanded into a winning coalition.

A combination of the economy and jobs was pinpointed as the issue voters felt was the most important problem the country faced. That was the case, too, for Black and Hispanic voters.

▶ Read more about Trump’s victory with these groups

California voters have rejected a measure amending the state Constitution to ban forced labor in any form. The constitution currently bans it except as punishment for crime.

That exemption became a target of criminal justice advocates who are concerned about prison labor conditions. People who are incarcerated are often paid less than $1 an hour to fight fires, clean cells and do landscaping work at cemeteries.

The initiative was included in a package of reparations proposals introduced by lawmakers as part of an effort to atone and offer redress for a history of racism and discrimination against Black Californians.

Several other states, including Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont, have in recent years approved constitutional amendments removing slavery and involuntary servitude exceptions.

▶ Read more about the rejected measure