Talk as much as you like about the global economy, business here at home or domestic politics, but all anyone is really paying attention to this morning are the results of the US midterm elections. Polls were closing across the United States in a rolling wave as we slid toward dispatch time this morning, and live coverage of the results dominates the front pages of the global business press. At stake: Control of the House of Representatives in what some are presenting as a referendum on both US President Donald Trump and on which faction of the Dems has the chops to challenge him in 2020.

At dispatch time, Democrats had flipped 11 seats in the House, while the GOP had picked up one Senate seat. Democratic candidates had also ousted two republicans in gubernatorial contests, according to Axios’ live elections map.

What’s animating US voters? Healthcare, immigration and The Donald (love or hate), according to a poll of tens of thousands of voters and likely voters released yesterday, the WSJ reports.

Take your pick of news sources — from CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and Politico to Bloomberg, Reuters, the Financial Times, and the WSJ, everyone is running results sliders and election maps on their homepages today.

Meanwhile:

Breach US sanctions on Iran and you’ll face “severe penalties,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo warned. “I promise you that doing business in Iran in defiance of our sanctions will ultimately be a much more painful business decision than pulling out of Iran,” Pompeo told reporters on Monday. Tehran has said it would defy the sanctions. Eight countries were temporarily exempted from a ban on oil imports to minimize disruption to the global market; Egypt was not among them.

The next frontier: The UN Security Council could lift sanctions on Eritrea next week as the country pushes ahead with its recent truce with Ethiopia and eases tensions with other neighbors, according to Reuters. A British-backed resolution could lift an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed in 2009, but the international community will likely require Eritrea to make progress on improving ties with Djibouti. Changing dynamics in the Horn of Africa will be crucial and Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia take the next steps in their detente on the Nile.

Meanwhile, in Ethiopia: Cairo wants formal agreements as assurance that Addis Ababa will not reduce Egypt’s share of Nile water during filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi told reporters on Tuesday, emphasizing that the dam should not be used for political purposes.

Much ado about risk, part I: Two pieces on general systemic risk caught our attention this morning. Former Goldman boss and ex-US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson warns we are living in an age of unprecedented risks — this from the guy who helped save the world from financial oblivion during the global financial crisis a decade ago. Business in emerging and developed markets alike face threats from political upheaval, he suggests, while politicians haven’t begun to get their minds around the risk posed by everything from the innovation businesses drive to the spread of communications technologies. “Even authoritarian governments can no longer expect to exercise exclusive control over their domestic economies,” he notes.

Much ado about risk, part II: Sovereign ratings face pressure as global growth slows — and a confidence shock looms ahead, Moody warns. The credit ratings agency said yesterday that while the global picture for ratings was still stable, slowing global growth, stark political risk, and high debt levels all pose challenges in the near term.