“Events, dear boy, events,” the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan is supposed to have said, when asked what he most feared. And events can certainly make a difference, as was apparent this week as Macmillan’s successor David Cameron moved out of Number 10 Downing Street and Theresa May moved in after British voters, against Cameron’s advice and contrary to widespread expectations, voted to leave the European Union on June 23.

But the extraordinary machinations in London are not capturing American voters’ attentions as much as things happening over here. At the midpoint of a tumultuous and often surprising presidential campaign, with the nominees seemingly chosen (though some Republicans still hope to stop Donald Trump in Cleveland), two major events have roiled the American political landscape over the last week.