An inhabited planet where some of the people have finally figured out the inherently limited nature of their world.
Global warming, pollution, soil erosion, loss of biological diversity, dwindling and unevenly distributed natural resources…

Two hot wars. And a huge trilateral economic contest involving a third of the population which leaves the other two thirds in relative misery.

Most of the conflict – hot and cold alike – can be pinned down to old people doing their best (worst, more likely) to conserve their status. Wealth, power, influence…

As things happen, currently there is one collective agent which yields enough power to decisively influence the outcome of the two hot wars. And to negotiate the economic contest.
The attention of the people constituting that particular collective agent has been hijacked by an insurrectionist ex-president attempting to regain that position.
The ex-president has curried the favor of significant political party by making it possible for the party-activists to succeed in their attempt to limit women’s access to abortion.
The ex-president and soon to be presidential candidate is currently involved in a penal process. The trial attempts to determine whether the hush money he had used to silence a porn actress regarding a ‘close encounter of the third kind’ had been spent legally.