President Trump has nominated the former chief executive of ExxonMobil for secretary of state, dismissed climate change as a hoax, and created pervasive concerns in the clean energy industry about the future of federal subsidies. Yet, shares of electric automaker Tesla, which recently merged with solar energy panel manufacturer SolarCity, have soared since Trump took office. This week, The New York Times reported, Tesla closed "within striking distance of a record high."

That may all be thanks to Tesla and SolarCity founder Elon Musk's strategic relationship with Trump. Musk hasn't always been a fan of Trump — he once said Trump was "not the right guy" to be president — but Musk now seems set on making a bromance bloom, and Trump isn't disinterested:

The president-elect invited Mr. Musk to Trump Tower in December as part of a group of technology executives and named him to his strategic and policy forum of business leaders.

And Mr. Musk was with a group of manufacturing executives at a White House meeting this week at which, according to a participant, he broached the subject of a carbon tax. Surprisingly, Mr. Trump didn't reject it out of hand.

For his part, Mr. Musk this week endorsed Rex W. Tillerson, a pillar of the fossil fuel establishment as chief executive of ExxonMobil, for secretary of state. [The New York Times]

The relationship isn't totally out of left field, said Adam Jonas, an automotive analyst at Morgan Stanley who recently upgraded Tesla stock to "overweight." "When you look at the businesses Tesla is in, you see many areas of overlapping interest," Jonas told The New York Times. "To the extent the new administration prioritizes the creation of valuable, innovative high tech, and manufacturing jobs, Tesla stands at the epicenter of that." Trump's interest in jobs creation might be the leverage Musk needs to save federal subsidies.

Already, solar investors' concerns are starting to abate. But can a bromance really save the day? "I want to believe that Trump won't kill solar," said alternative energy analyst Andrew Hughes. "But there's still a lot of uncertainty."

For more on the story, head over to The New York Times. Becca Stanek

A species of giant tortoise thought to be extinct was found on the Galapagos island of Fernandina this week, Ecuador's ministry of the environment announced.

The last time a Chelonoidis phantasticus, also known as the Fernandina giant tortoise, was seen alive was in 1906. The tortoise spotted on Sunday is a female, and likely more than 100 years old. Researchers took the tortoise to a breeding center on Santa Cruz Island, and she is now living in a special pen.

Based off of tracks and feces found by the researchers, they think it's possible there are other Fernandina tortoises on the island. "This encourages us to strengthen our search plans to find other tortoises, which will allow us to start a breeding program in captivity to recover this species," Galapagos National Park Director Danny Rueda said in a statement. Catherine Garcia

The office of Gov. Bill Lee (R-Tenn.) confirmed on Thursday that a photo of Lee wearing a Confederate uniform appeared in Auburn University's 1980 yearbook.

Earlier in the week, Lee's office told The Tennessean they had no knowledge of any photos showing Lee in a Confederate uniform. Lee attended Auburn from 1977 to 1981, and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. Every year, the fraternity would hold "Old South" parties, where members wore Confederate uniforms, The Tennessean reports. At the time, a large Confederate flag was on display outside of the Kappa Alpha house, and they also held an annual celebration of Robert E. Lee's birthday. The photo of Lee is in the Kappa Alpha section of the yearbook.

In an earlier statement, Lee said he "never intentionally acted in an insensitive way, but with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that participating in that was insensitive and I've come to regret it." Catherine Garcia

It's not something you see every day, or year, or even decade: Snow in Los Angeles.

An exceptionally chilly storm system from Alberta, Canada, brought snow on Thursday to cities across Southern California, including Malibu, West Hollywood, Pasadena, San Bernardino, and Rancho Cucamonga. The snow level dropped to as low as 1,000 feet in some areas, with flakes falling in cities that haven't seen snow in several decades. "This is probably the coldest storm system I've seen in my time in California," meteorologist David Sweet with the National Weather Service in Oxnard told the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Public Library Archives says that it hasn't snowed in the city since January 1962, when snow dusted downtown L.A. Much of Thursday's snow melted as soon as it hit the ground, but it's definitely sticking up in the mountains across Southern California, which have already seen a lot of powder this winter. Catherine Garcia

Peter Tork, bassist and keyboardist for The Monkees, died on Thursday. He was 77.

In 2009, Tork was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer affecting his head and neck. Known for their hits "Daydream Believer" and "I'm a Believer," The Monkees had four No. 1 albums and a television show that ran from 1966 to 1968. The group, comprised of Tork, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith, released the movie Head in 1968, and later that year, Tork left the band. He participated in several reunion tours, both before and after Jones died in 2012. Tork's last solo record, "Relax Your Mind," came out in 2018.

Dolenz tweeted on Thursday that his heart is "broken," and Nesmith said he is "clinging to the idea that we all continue," but the "pain that attends these passings has no cure." Catherine Garcia

Get ready to enter a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.

CBS on Thursday debuted the first full trailer for The Twilight Zone, the new reboot of the classic 1959 series. The trailer teases a variety of storylines that seem just in line with the original show, including one in which a character played by Kumail Nanjiani seems to notice things are subtly off about his universe, and one in which a kid, played by Jacob Tremblay, appears to be the president, similar to the classic devil child episode "It's a Good Life."

That's not the only tie-in to the original series in the trailer, though. An episode starring Adam Scott appears to be a riff on the classic William Shatner episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," in which a man is terrorized by a monster on the wing of a plane. Scott's episode is called "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet," and he's shown freaking out on a plane, just like Shatner's character. A doll resembling the infamous monster on the wing from that episode is also shown washed up on the beach. At another point, we see the same fortune teller machine from another classic Shatner episode, "Nick of Time."

The Twilight Zone debuts on April 1 on CBS All Access. Watch the trailer below. Brendan Morrow

North Carolina's elections board has called for a new congressional election to finally fill its 9th District seat.

Republican candidate Mark Harris narrowly beat Democrat Dan McCready in November's elections, but the board had refused to call the election amid widespread allegations of fraud committed by Harris' campaign. After a weeklong series of hearings on the issue — and after Harris called for a new election — the board decided Thursday to hold a do-over, per The Washington Post.

After November's elections, dozens of voters filed affidavits saying people came to their house and illegally asked for their absentee ballots, even if they weren't filled out, signed, or sealed. Witnesses have since testified to collecting those ballots after being paid by McCrae Dowless, a political operative who consulted for Harris.

The uncertainty prompted a series of hearings on the issue, during which state investigators and the board said they had "evidence" that proved "a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the general election," per NBC News. Harris has long denied knowledge of any illegal activities, and repeated that claim Thursday. Still, he called for a new election because "the public's confidence... has been undermined." Less than an hour later, the board voted to hold a new election, the Post says. Kathryn Krawczyk