10 things you need to know today: July 17, 2016

Pro-Erdogan supporters gather at Taksim square in Istanbul

(Image credit: Bulent Kilic/Getty Images)

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1. Turkey detains 6,000 people in connection with Friday's failed coup
2. Mohamed Bouhlel's family: Nice attacker 'had psychological problems'
3. All U.S. anti-ISIS operations from Turkey's Incirlik Air Base have been halted
4. #NeverTrump efforts wane in advance of GOP convention Monday
5. French authorities arrest 5, call up police reservists in connection with Nice attack
6. Anti-doping authorities may try to ban Russia from Rio Olympics
7. Turkey coup attempt was a surprise in diplomatic circles, says House Homeland Security Committee member
8. Hillary Clinton pledges constitutional amendment on campaign finance
9. Armed gunmen demand release of 'political prisoners' in Armenia
10. 2 killed in 'extremely random' Florida hospital shooting

last updated 17 July 2016

1. Turkey detains 6,000 people in connection with Friday's failed coup

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said Sunday his government has detained 6,000 people, about 3,000 of them soldiers, in connection with Friday night's failed military coup. He expects the number of arrests to continue to rise. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also indicated that Turkey's parliament might consider introducing the death penalty. Erdogan blames the coup on Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania, and has called on the United States to extradite him. In addition to the arrests, the Turkish government dismissed 2,745 judges Saturday, detaining at least 12 high-ranking justices on grounds that they had "financial transactions and communications" with coup organizers.

Mohamed Bouhlel, the man who waged a deadly attack on a crowd of Bastille Day revelers in Nice, France, "had psychological problems that caused a nervous breakdown," said his father, Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej Bouhlel, on Saturday. "He would become angry, shout, break everything around him." Rabeb Bouhlel, the attacker's sister, likewise said her family has "given the police documents showing that he had been seeing psychologists for several years." Before he was killed by law enforcement during his onslaught, Bouhlel was convicted of road rage and was separated from his wife after a history of domestic violence.

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The United States embassy in Turkey reported and the Pentagon confirmed Saturday that "local authorities are denying movements on to and off of Incirlik Air Base," a large Turkish facility the U.S. uses as a key location for its anti-Islamic State air campaigns in Iraq and Syria. "The power there has also been cut," the embassy said. Turkish officials said the base would only be closed until they could ascertain that all equipment and planes of the Turkish air force are in pro-government hands following Friday night's failed military coup.

The Republican National Convention is slated to begin Monday in Cleveland, Ohio, and the prospect of an effective effort to avoid officially nominating Donald Trump looks increasingly unlikely. #NeverTrump plotting will continue through Sunday night, but rebels face an uphill battle now that GOP leadership has aligned with Trump's team and supporters. Most of the plans to disrupt a Trump nomination center on the Rules Committee and parliamentary procedure, aiming to release delegates from the obligation of voting for the candidate their state's primary or caucuses endorsed.

Law enforcement in Nice, France, have detained at least five people as of Sunday morning in connection to Thursday night's truck attack which left at least 84 dead. The most recent three arrestees are part of the dead attacker's "close entourage," police said, though it is still unclear whether they had any substantial connection to outside terrorist organizations like the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility. The French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has also called some 12,000 police reservists into action "because of the terrorist threat," increasing the number of police and soldiers providing law enforcement services in France by 10 percent.

U.S. and Canadian anti-doping officials have drafted a letter recommending that all Russian athletes be banned from the 2016 Olympics in Rio if a forthcoming report shows evidence of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. "We write on behalf of a community of clean athletes and anti-doping organizations," the letter says, arguing that if the doping rumors are confirmed, the "only appropriate, and permissible, course of action in these unprecedented circumstances" is immediate suspension. Paralympic Russian athletes would be suspended as well. The report in question will be released Monday.

No one saw coming Friday's failed military coup attempt in Turkey, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) of the House Homeland Security Committee said Sunday during a radio interview. "As far as I know, there was no diplomatic talk, there was no intelligence talk of this coup," King remarked. "We know many people in the military [were] dissatisfied and were strongly opposed to President Erdogan, feeling he had become a virtual dictator and he had also purged a number of top people in the military. But no one that I’m aware of saw this coup coming." King added he believes Erdogan's rule will become "more dictatorial" in the wake of the coup attempt, and that the government's preservation of power is likely the worse outcome for the U.S. war against the Islamic State.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton pledged Saturday to introduce a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC. The campaign finance ruling paved the way for the creation of super PACs, from which Clinton's own race has benefited. The announcement promised the Clinton amendment would appear within 30 days of her inauguration to "protect against the undue influence of billionaires and special interests."

Armed gunmen in a group called Daredevils of Sassoun took hostages Sunday at a police station in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. They demand the release of "political prisoners," including Jirair Sefilian, an opposition politician whom Armenian authorities jailed under accusation of fomenting unrest after he vocally criticized current policies. So far, one police officer has been killed and two hostages freed. Negotiations continue in an effort to resolve the situation without additional violence.

Two people described by police as an "elderly female patient" and a "female hospital employee" were fatally shot at Parrish Medical Center, a hospital in Titusville, Florida, early Sunday morning. The gunman responsible was restrained by hospital security and arrested. To date, there is no known motive or link between the shooter and his victims. "It appears to be extremely random," said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey. "There may be something later in the day that connects the dots for us."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.