U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as military strikes are launched against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, at an unspecified location in this handout image released March 15, 2025.
White House | Via Reuters
Oil prices rose on Monday after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would hold Iran responsible for any future attack by the Houthis, a militant group in Yemen that has launched missile strikes on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and on Israel.
U.S. crude oil futures rose 40 cents, or 0.6%, to $67.58 per barrel. Global benchmark Brent traded higher by 44 cents, or 0.62%, at $71.02 per barrel.
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN,” Trump said in a post on social media platform Truth Social. “IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!”
Trump’s threat comes after the U.S. launched a new wave of airstrikes against the Houthis over the weekend. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday the U.S. campaign will continue until the militant group halts its attacks.
“This campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence,” Hegseth told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “The minute the Houthis say we’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones, this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting.”
The Houthis began targeting commercial shipping traversing the Red Sea in late 2023 in support of Hamas, after the Palestinian militant group launched a surprise attack on southern Israel and Israel responded with a ground and air campaign in Gaza. The Houthis and Hamas are both allied with Iran.
The Houthi missile strikes have forced international shipping companies to reroute container ships that would normally pass through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
Trump has reimposed a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran with the goal of driving down the Islamic Republic’s oil exports. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said the Trump administration’s goal is to collapse Iran’s economy.
The White House believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, an allegation the Islamic Republic denies. Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz, said Sunday that “all options are on the table” to ensure Iran does not acquire a nuclear bomb.
“We cannot have a situation that would result in an arms race across the Middle East in terms of nuclear proliferation,” Waltz said on ABC’s “This Week.”
ACME stock soars on today’s cartoonishly silly episode of Quick Charge, we watch Tesla Autopilot crash into a wall with a painting on it, make the Elon stans look silly when they point out shady behavior from their fearless leader, and toss out the notion that some franchise dealers might help the troubled EV brand make more sales in red states.
We also cover Toyota as it moves to position itself for global battery dominance by suppling batteries to more than 400,000 electrified Honda vehicles per year, plus an upgraded Xpeng G6 electric SUV that makes everything on this side of the Pacific look positively plebeian. All this and more, enjoy!
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.
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Tesla has already started offering 0% APR on loans for the new Model Y in China, showing a clear sign of weak demand.
We recently reported that Tesla is under increased pressure from competition in China, the world’s largest EV market.
The Tesla Model 3 was recently surpassed in sales by the Xiaomi SU7 in a record short period from starting production. The SU7 not only outsells Model 3 in China, but Xiaomi’s electric sedan has a 31-34-week-long order backlog compared to just 1-3 weeks for Tesla’s.
Tesla didn’t apply these same offers to new Model Y orders because Tesla enjoyed more demand for the vehicle due to the launch of the Model Y refresh, and the production launch limited the supplies.
We noted that a good indication of when Tesla is running out of the backlog of orders, which was opened in January, for the newly delivered vehicle would be if Tesla brings back financing incentives on the Model Y.
Today, Tesla announced that it was bringing back the 0% interest loans on the base version of the new Model Y:
The Model Y RWD is by far Tesla’s best-selling car in China and Tesla is now offering up to 3 years at 0% for a 30% down payment and some discounted rates for a smaller down payment.
The incentive starts now and up to April 30. Tesla wrote:
If you purchase a Model Y rear-wheel drive version from March 18, 2025 to April 30, 2025 and pick up the car before the order expiration date according to the delivery and payment terms in the order, eligible customers can apply for the following financial preferential plans:
Tesla currently quotes “2-4 weeks” as a delivery timeline for new orders for the new Model Y RWD, and 6-10 weeks for Long Range AWD.
The Long Range appears to enjoy a bit more demand. Tesla even slightly increased the price by RMB 10,000 yuan ($1,380).
Electrek’s Take
It’s important to consider that Tesla is believed to be selling a mix of RWD vs AWD around 3 to 1 or even 4 to 1. Therefore, any change in pricing and subsidized loans to the Short Range RWD would have a massive impact on Tesla.
I have to say, I’m surprised. I suspected Tesla would have some issues selling the new Model Y in the second half of the year after some excitement for the new version wore off and competition like the Xiaomi YU7 would arrive, but I didn’t think it would come so fast.
Even if this is because Tesla was able to ramp up production of the new version faster, which could mean more deliveries in Q1, the fact that they are already discounting them is a terrible sign of demand.
I didn’t have high hopes for Tesla’s prospects in China in 2025, but even I thought this would not come for another 3-5 months.
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The World Liberty Financial website arranged on a smartphone in New York, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto project said on Monday that it raised $250 million in its second token sale, bringing the total amount of coins sold to $550 million.
WLFI, a venture backed by the first family that describes itself as a sort of crypto banking platform, launched in October, weeks before Trump’s election victory. In a document published at the time of launch, WLFI said the Trump family could take home 75% of net revenue.
In Monday’s release, WLFI said more than 85,000 participants underwent so-called know-your-customer verification to gain access to the token sale. Co-founder Zach Witkoff, son of billionaire U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, is quoted in the release as saying that “WLFI is on track to supercharge DeFi,” or decentralized finance.
In January, Tron blockchain founder Justin Sun upped his stake in WLFI tokens to $75 million. A court filing the following month showed that Sun and the SEC were exploring a resolution to the regulator’s civil fraud case against the crypto entrepreneur.
WLFI is one of several crypto projects in the Trump family that are kicking off just as the president is pushing a crypto-friendly agenda. Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
According to a memo from the White House last week, David Sacks, the Trump administration’s AI and crypto czar, sold over $200 million worth of digital asset-related investments personally and through his firm, Craft Ventures, before starting the job. Sacks said in a podcast that he “didn’t want to even have the appearance of a conflict.”
At the end of February, the SEC declared that meme tokens are not securities. The announcement came after the president and First Lady Melania Trump launched their own meme coins in the days leading up to the inauguration.