Venezuelans going to the polls Sunday will be asked to answer an unusually provocative question:

Should their government be given a blank check to invade neighboring Guyana, and wrest away three-quarters of its oil-rich territory?

Of course they never would have held this vote if they were not pretty sure of the outcome.

Apparently there is a very old “territorial dispute” that would supposedly justify grabbing 74 percent of Guyana’s current territory…

The government of Nicolás Maduro is putting the query before voters, part of a century-old territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana that is raising tensions in the region and threatening to escalate into a shooting war.

The question will be on the ballot in a five-part referendum that, among other things, would grant Maduro special powers to invade Guyana and create a new Venezuelan state encompassing 74% of English-speaking Guyana’s current landmass. The new area would be called Guayana Esequiba.

So if Venezuela does this, would anyone intervene?

The government of Brazil has already expressed their concerns, and the Brazilian military has bolstered forces in the northern part of the country…

“The Ministry of Defense has been monitoring the situation. Defensive actions have been intensified in the northern border region of the country, promoting a greater military presence,” Brazil’s defense ministry said in a statement.

I never imagined that we would be talking about a potential war between Venezuela and Brazil in 2024, but here we are.

Could the U.S. also get involved? It is no secret that the U.S. has wanted to get rid of Maduro for a long time, but we already have our hands full with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Speaking of the Middle East, the USS Carney and at least two commercial ships were attacked in the Red Sea on Sunday…

A U.S. warship and multiple commercial vessels were reportedly under attack in the Red Sea on Sunday.

The development could signify a serious escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Middle East linked to the Israel-Hamas war.

“We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available, later,” a Pentagon spokesman told Fox News, after the Associated Press reported on an attack on a U.S. warship in the Red Sea.

It is being reported that the USS Carney actually shot down two drones during the attacks…

The Carney responded after hearing from the Bahamas-flagged bulk carrier Unity Explorer that it was under attack by missile fire, the official said. The Carney shot down two drones during the attack, one in self-defense and another after checking on the Unity Explorer, the official said.

So who was responsible?

The Houthis in Yemen have taken responsibility for attacking the commercial ships, but they haven’t said anything about the USS Carney…

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have ambushed multiple ships in the Red Sea in recent days, claimed responsibility for attacking two commercial ships but made no mention of the Carney.

The attacks, combined with an increase in clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah near the Lebanon border, could represent steps toward an expansion of the war in the region, something the Biden administration has labored to prevent.

Will the U.S. bomb the Houthis in retaliation for this attack? We shall see.

Meanwhile, the IDF is operating “in new areas of the Gaza Strip”, and Yoav Gallant says that the ultimate goal of this operation is “the absolute elimination of the Hamas terror organization”…

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated on Saturday night that the military is operating in new areas of the Gaza Strip, adding that Jerusalem’s war objective to fully dismantle Hamas remains unaltered.

“In the last two days, we are operating in areas we have not been active in over the last month, and it will increase and intensify,” said Gallant. “This operation will reach every point that needs to be reached. We are going for the absolute elimination of the Hamas terror organization.

“We are going until we defeat them, dismantle their military capabilities and break their governing ability, and we will need to do this by adapting to the new conditions of the terrain we are fighting in. There will be intense and precise fire,” continued the minister.

After the horrific attacks of October 7th, Israel has no other choice.

You can’t negotiate with barbarians that will kill children, rape women and kidnap the elderly.

One survivor of the attacks saw “eight or ten of the fighters” raping one very unfortunate Israeli woman…

After an hour, the shift manager peeked out. ‘I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or ten of the fighters beating and raping her.’

The woman was screaming ‘stop it’ he said, and begged the terrorists to kill her to put her out of her misery.

‘When they finished they were laughing and the last one shot her in the head’, he said.

The Israeli government fully intends to wipe out Hamas, and that makes major escalation of the war very likely.

On Sunday, Hezbollah once again attacked IDF forces on the northern front, and the IDF responded by conducting “extensive airstrikes” in Lebanon…

The Israeli military released footage of extensive airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday following an attack by the terrorist organizations.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an anti-tank missile attack that “lightly injured” multiple IDF servicemembers. Israel responded with artillery fire and airstrikes.

IDF warplanes recently attacked a number of targets of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, including terrorist infrastructure and military targets,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari wrote in a statement. “Also, following the warnings in the north of the country, in the last hour a number of launches were detected towards Israeli territory from Lebanese territory. IDF forces attacked the sources of the fire with artillery.”

Now that the truce in the south is over, I expect more clashes to erupt in the coming days.

Hezbollah should stop while they still can, but they aren’t going to do that.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning that Lebanon will be destroyed if they continue to go down this road…

“We are acting in the north all the time against all efforts by Hezbollah to operate against us. We are eliminating terror cells, pushing them away from the border, destroying munitions. We will continue with strong deterrence in the north, and total victory in the south,” he said.

“It should be clear, we are committed to restoring security to the south and the north. If Hezbollah makes a mistake and enters into a full-out war it will destroy Lebanon with its own hands,” Netanyahu warned.

This is certainly a time of wars and rumors of wars.

We are being told that Ethiopia and Eritrea “may be heading for another war”, the Russians are advancing in Ukraine, a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan is looming, and North Korea is making all sorts of threats.

It appears that 2024 is going to be a year of war, and that is not good news for any of us.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.