US votes in midterms as Seoul stocks fall and Brazil watches

Voting is under way across the United States in midterm elections on Tuesday, a contest watched from Seoul to Brasilia.

Midterm elections fall at the midpoint of a US presidential term, when control of Congress is decided. Donald Trump is in the White House.

In South Korea, Seoul shares opened sharply lower on Tuesday, Yonhap reported, attributing the fall to troubles in artificial intelligence stocks and to caution ahead of the US vote.

Brazil is following the count closely. France 24 reported that relations between Brasilia and Washington have grown increasingly tense since Trump returned to office, and that aggressive US trade policies have left Brazilian imports facing some of the steepest tariffs applied to any country. The broadcaster's correspondent in Rio de Janeiro, Jan Onoszko, filed the report.

Central Oregon Daily reported on where the Trump administration's legal battles stand on Election Day, placing the vote against a series of court fights involving the administration.

The South African Government News Agency headlined a report "Parties keep close watch as election results trickle in". RSM US, an accounting and consulting firm, published a piece asking whether US trade policies have worked.

No results had been declared in the reports available at the time of filing.

The stakes reach beyond Washington because the United States is the largest market for many of the economies now watching. South Korea's exporters and Brazil's exporters both sell into the US, and both governments have spent the past year adjusting to tariff decisions taken in Washington. A Congress controlled by a different party from the president can also slow or block legislation that trade partners have come to expect.

France 24's segment was broadcast as a video report from Rio de Janeiro rather than as a written dispatch. Yonhap's market report was filed from Seoul before US polling closed. Neither outlet reported a projected outcome.