the same can't be said about the living room. the owner startled awake by the commotion. how is a dog supposed to know smoking is bad for you? he's fine. i'm sandra smith. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 at the white house where president trump is waiting to welcome italy's prime minister and getting ready for a news conference during this hour. we expect to hear about an upcoming summit because russia has been excluded for bad behavior. we could hear about moscow's latest moves to protect bashar al-assad. and plus, with a possible government shut down looming next week, the white house looks to make some big moves. making plays to get money for a southern border wall and for the military while republican lawmakers are pushing a new plan to overall obamacare. we'll see how their proposal

could affect your coverage. and man hunt for a leaker. did a cia insider give secrets to wikileaks? word of an enormous countser enter jens operation underway right now. let's get to it. president trump is set to welcome italy's prime minister for the two leader's face-to-face meeting. here a live look. in fact, he may be arriving now. prime minister paolo gentiloni is in his first overseas trip since taking office. syria and russia will be a major part of the talks. you may remember, the g-7 used to be the g-8 but the group of industrialized nations kicked

out russia after vladimir putin invaded cr invaded crimea in 2014. they have also blamed assad for the latest deadly chemical attack against civilians in syria. italy is also a nato ally, of course and president trump is scheduled to attend his first nato meeting in brussels ahead of the g-7 summit. john roberts is live on the north line as we await the italian prime minister's arrival. john? >> shep, we heard the motorcycles pull in for prime minister gentiloni. this is the drive leading to the west wing where the president will welcome the italian prime minister. a lot on the agenda. terrorism, syria will be on the agenda. here's the prime minister now behind me, as a matter of fact. >> shepard: how about that? >> there you go.

they'll be talking about the syria issue, terrorism. you mentioned the g-7 which used to be the g-8. russia kicked out by president obama saying we don't want to have anything to do with the g-7 anyway. we want to focus on the g-20. any kind of summit would the world's major economies amounts to nothing. a slap in the face to the italian prime minister who will be holding the g-7 in sicily. there's president trump coming out to welcome the prime minister. there's a bigomy -- big migrant crisis in italy. the president has called on all the nato countries to live up to their commitment to invest to 2% of their gdp. italy's contribution has been done about .95%. just under 1%. so it's likely they'll talk about that as well, shep.

>> shepard: john, we'll be back to you. healthcare reform is dead for now, right? maybe not. that's what the white house is floating. there's word that president trump is gearing up for major battles on capitol hill. he will hit the 100 day-mark next saturday. politico reports that top white house officials and republican leaders are preparing for another show down on healthcare next week. according to the website gop lawmakers could begin circulate ago new bill to replace obamacare as early as tomorrow as a compromise between the conservative and moderate republicans. seems the freedom caucus and the tuesday group members are talking. they've been at odds over what to do on health care. now the house speaker paul ryan has said one freedom caucus member says the two sides are close to a deal. president trump this week said

healthcare is going to happen, soon. he's struck out so far and healthcare is not the only battle looming on the hill. the white house is preparing for a possible government shut down fight next week to try to secure money for the president's border wall and other programs. candidate trump promised repeatedly that mexico would pay for that wall. then president trump said taxpayers would foot the bill and mexico will pay us back. so if you're republican leadership who has been saying for years give us a republican president and we can govern, the last thing you want is for them to shut down because they can't come to an agreement. a shut down can happen. back to john roberts at the white house. what more are we learning about the legislative agenda, john? >> they're quickly finding out even if you control both sides,

getting things done is not easy. a lot of discussions about this continuing resolution for the budget next week because the government does run out of money on the 29th. at the center of that as you mentioned is money for the border wall. the president is insisting on $1.4 billion in the funding for the construction of the border wall. the beginning of it. he needs democrats in order to pass the funding measure for the government to continue operating and democrats have said they're not going to put one penny to the construction of a border wall. so a big fight looming. that may be one of the questions that the president gets at the press conference this afternoon about 45 minutes from now when he appears there with the italian prime minister. and also, there's a lot of movement on healthcare. tom mcarthur has been having meetings with mark meadows, the chairman of the house freedom

caucus potentially paving the way for a vote by the mid to end of next week. they are said to have come to an agreement in principle on measure that would keep essential health benefits in the overall healthcare bill, the american healthcare act, but also codified in the bill that states can ask for limited waivers to opt out of that program. can it attract enough votes to get past the house? look at what a gop aide said this afternoon. the question is whether it can get to 216 votes in the house and the answer is not clear at this time. there's no legislative text in there for no agreement to do a whip count on. there's talk about a vote happening thursday in the house of next week. i'm told that that is not really realistic because the house doesn't come back from their break until tuesday. they have to go through the rules and all of that, lay that out. so maybe a vote by the end of the week. i'm told that might be 50/50 at best. a lot of people are looking at

this all hands on deck call for this saturday for republican members. a lot of that is a fight over appropriations. but they will talk about health care as well. shep? >> shepard: what about tax reform? >> they're working on parallel tracks here. they're trying to get healthcare done and laying the tracks for tax reform. kevin brady, the head of the house ways and means committee told neil cavuto a couple days ago he wants to hold hearings on the republican blueprint as soon as next week. steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary said earlier today that they're going to do tax reform whether or not they do healthcare. but the president really wants to do healthcare first because that gives him a bigger pot of money to do tax reform with. also, a lot of republicans want to get that off of the books as well. don't forget when listening to steve mnuchin about timetables, he's the guy that shocked everybody by saying we can get

tax reform done by august. a lot of folks sayinghat is he talking about? we can't get that done by august. so they're happy to hear him walking that timetable back. >> shepard: maybe in this millenni millennium. thanks, john. jake sherman is here with us from politico. he has an article out about the budget talks including healthcare. jay? >> good to be here. >> shepard: healthcare? they've come to some sort of agreement? what do we know? >> it's very premature. the house freedom caucus, as you noted in talking to john, the house freedom caucus and the tuesday group have been talking. they have come to an agreement in theory. that's two men that have come to an agreement. tom mcarthur of new jersey and mark meadows of north carolina. that's not 216 people that have come to an agreement. if you watch the news, which we have the last couple weeks, people back home have kind of caught flak over the healthcare

issue. donald trump has been all over the map on this, too. a couple weeks ago when the healthcare bill went down, he said this has been wonderful. now we're on our way. now he's saying he wants back in the game. there's mixed messages all over the place. this vote is very, very -- i want to stress -- unlikely to happen next week. they can't get the bill until thursday or friday. the government shuts down on friday. so if we -- we've all been watching congress the last couple years. i've been covering it the last seven or eight years. i don't have much hope in an effective legislative vehicle going through next week. so we need to all keep our expectations low for action. the tuesday group and house freedom caucus have nothing in common. i'm very skeptical. >> shepard: if you get it passed the house, youetting it past the senate. that ain't happening.

what is this obsession about getting something done in the first 100 days, a big legislative win. where does that come from? >> the white house. you have competing polls here. you have the house -- the white house, which is hungry for some sort of victory legislatively in the first 100 days because of a benchmark that is traditional for presidents. 100 days -- >> shepard: it's not real. >> it's not real. it's a figment of our imagination. i talked to an aide last night. that person said yes, it's a figment of our imagination but we bought into it and it's how we're judged. in the house and the senate, they're looking at realities. how do we get 216 votes in the house and 50 in the senate. they're not really thinking about the white house's priorities. so you have competing factions in the white house and capitol hill. >> shepard: thanks, jake. come back. >> i will. >> shepard: the 100 days in israel is at 7:00 eastern, 6:00

central on fox news channel. it's martha maccallum's show. you should watch that. the trump white house feels pressure on the home front. there's new areas of concern coming from north korea. another day, another concern. today warning of a preemptive strike, and the chinese military growing on alert. serious stuff. we'll get the details of it coming up from the fox news deck on this thursday afternoon. umbrellas!! you need one of these. you wouldn't put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. tell you what, i'll give it to you for half off.

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>> shepard: 14 minutes past the hour. the italian prime minister came to the white house, and he and president trump are meeting. they'll have a meeting this afternoon. there's a live look at the white house. and then the president will make his first overseas trip. he will go to brussels and talk nato and work with the g-7, the industrialized nation there's as they try to come up with plans. in just a moment, the white house will be feeding out the first meeting between the italian prime minister and the american president from the oval office, i believe. it's one of those taped play-back situations. so this happened maybe three or four minutes ago. now they have cued it up and given us a time frame when they mr. play this out. because what we wanted to do is taken up the time and we would have missed it, we'll play that out for you when it plays from the white house in about 15 seconds. a lot to consider today from north korea. in north korea, there's new

signs coming out of china that are very worrisome. more than anything, they're confusing. because the chinese have put a bunch of military on real active alert. it appears that they're getting ready for something. there's concerns about the possibility of a preemptive strike. we'll get to that in a second. the white house is now playing out the video of the italian prime minister and the president. let's listen. >> a great welcome to the prime minister of italy. we're going to have a long discussion and some very great honor to have you. >> thank you, mr. president. i'm really please to be here. i've been waiting for your visit in sicily. >> i look forward to that very much. i imagine many of these people will be going. we look forward to it. thank you very much. thank you. >> paolo gentiloni of italy and.

trump getting together for the show and go. the cameras show and then they go. they can get down to business now. back to the north korean matter that i mentioned. the north korean dictator and his regime now promising a super mighty preemptive strike against the united states. super mighty. the latest threat as the trump administration tries to put pressure on north korea to curve their nuclear program. senior defense officials says they see a greater amount of bomber activity in china. i'll give you the details in just a minute. secretary of state rex tillerson saying yesterday that the white house is looking at all ways to force north korea to the negotiating table, including possibly putting the rogue nation back on the list of state sponsored terrorism. the bush administration removed north korea in 2008 because north korea agreed to disable a plutonium plant and allow inspectors to check out whether it froze its nuclear program.

they did that. that got them off the list. that was then. kim jong-un's tyrant dad was running the show. now paul ryan and others have been warning about the danger of a nuclear north korea. president trump said the united states shouldn't rule out anything at all. >> allowing this kind of dictator to have that kind of power is not something that civilized nations can allow to happen. so of course we don't want to get kinetic. we don't want military options employed. we have to keep all options on the table. >> speaker ryan said the north might -- that north korea might be able to nuke any nation. it's as simple as unacceptable. what i said. jennifer griffin at the pentagon. back to china.

there's movement over there unusual and looks like they're preparing for something. is that the basic of it? >> we're told not to read too much into it. a senior defense official has said they've seen a greater amount of bomber activity in terms of alert status. it's not clear what the activity means. u.s. officials are not seeing more bomber flights but think china has put their pilots on an increased alert status. north korea warned china about a possible nuclear test on april 20th but that deadline has passed. it's april 21 in pyongyang. so now there's a watch and wait mode. no real developments on the peninsula. all eyes are on the nuclear site where satellite images show the north koreans have for the past three weeks been making preparations for what would be a sixth nuclear test. we know from u.s. defense sources that water has been pumped out of the underground

site and perhaps strangest of all, north korean workers have been seen playing volleyball there as though they're passing time. china's influential global times newspaper, which is pun established by the people's daily, the official paper, has weighed in on misstatements made by u.s. officials about the u.s.s. carl vinson. "the truth seems to be that the u.s. military and president jointly created fake news and it's without doubt a rare scandal in u.s. history, which will be bound to cripple trump's and u.s.' dignity." that according to the chinese paper. south korean is also criticizing the risky bluff when it comes to the u.s.s. vinson. >> shepard: we just started some sort of exercises with south korea. >> in fact, those exercises known as max thunder started today. the north koreans are very angry that the u.s. and south korea

began a new joint military air exercise today that will last through april 28. this is viewed by pyongyang as a provocation and threat to the regime and could be misunderstood with tensions so high in the region. the next anniversary is april 25 when kim jong-un will mark the founding of the army. >> shepard: jennifer, thank you. we're just getting word from sky news in the united kingdom, quoting now, "a french police source says an officer has been killed in a shooting in paris". our partners in news over there are working on this right now. the moment we get information and gives us specifics about what has happened, we'll bring that to you. it appears at this moment a serious situation has happened in paris. more on breaking news after this.

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>> shepard: continuing coverage now of a shooting that has happened in paris. we've gotten word that a police officer is dead and another police officer is injured after a shooting that happened in paris. it's our understanding from the reporting of france 24, another 24-hour news service there with whom we work. according to france 24, the person that fired at the two police officers has also been killed. we don't know the details and by whom. the news crews are scrambling in paris right now. we're expecting a live feed. you can run through the list of what our questions are. targeting police. france has had its troubles. we'll find out what this is.

it would be ridiculous to get ahead of the news. france 24 is reporting two police officers have been shot, one killed. one badly injured. the shooter, whoever that shooter may be, the shooter is also -- has also been killed. we're expecting new information out of paris in just a moment. i'm told our news crews are about to have a live feed up. think of it, it's april, paris, 9:26 p.m. i guess it's 9:00. they're not in summertime. so you can imagine, if it's a pretty night and i think it is, there could be a lot of people there. the feeds are indicating that in fact the police cars are all lined up in that area. and that authorities are investigating. what we don't know is anything about this shooter, anything about the shooter's motive. we do know one officer is dead,

one officer is injured. sky news is our news network that is owned by common ownership. they cover all of europe. their cameras are racing to that scene. christopher hill is with us and former ambassador to south korea and former assistant secretary of state and east asian pacific affairs. terrorism in europe has been one of your specialties. it's way too soon to talk about this as terrorism and we have no idea what this is and i'm no going there. but any time there's a tourist area in a place like paris, you to move and diligently. >> certainly we've seen this before in brussels, paris and else where. the french police really are pretty good at following this kind of thing. so first of all, if it is terrorism, i wouldn't go to the notion of some kind of lapse in the security forces. it just speaks to the continued

difficulty of keeping people safe while there's these hideous wars and a meltdown in the middle east with sunni radicals. so at some point, the administration will have to pay more attention to the middle east, not just the sort of one-off bombing of bashar al-assad, a punitive bombing, but rather sort of look in more general terms about trying to calm that place down and reducing the flow of people into europe. >> shepard: we have -- thank you. we have just gotten live pictures in. these are pictures from bsm, which is a french television network. the clock was up there. it did say it was like 21:28 there. so 9:28 in the evening. catherine herridge is with us now. do we have any idea what is happening here? >> we don't have specific

information about the shooter or a motive. but to add to the ambassador's context, the secretary of homeland security, john kelly, told an audience here in that b intelligence, there's 10,000 europeans that have gone to iraq and syria. with the increased in pressure, they're starting to see the individuals go back to their countries. this is one of their main drivers, if you will, understanding the strategic picture and what it means to have the foreign nationals that can travel to the united states and canada coming back to europe with the military pressure and the progress being made by that campaign. we don't have the information about paris, but it's understood that for paris and other

european nations now, the issue of self-radicalized or those returning from iraq and syria. this is one of the issues they'll consider. >> shepard: we don't know what this is except we just got our first dispatch from the a.p. in paris. paris police warning people to avoid the elysees area. it's not overcrowded right now. but they've had time to clear out. we have a number of french television stations with whom work. this is not. these are new pictures out of paris, this is from a different network? is that right? this is a reuters television news feed. they have warned people to stay away from the sur les champs

elysees and the areas around it. one police officer shot, one killed. france 24 is reporting that whoever the shooter was has been taken down and killed himself. fox news can't confirm that ourselves. it certainly is the report from the scene and france 24. listen to this. they're just asking photograph ers to move out of the way and doing it with flare according to people that might know how to speak french. the reason we're with this at this moment is, we want to find out what there is to know about the shooter, motives and the rest. did someone target police officers, were the police officers trying to break up a crime that happened hand somebody pulled out a weapon. could this have been some sort of domestic disturbance. the possibilities are limitless. we have nothing to begin to

focus on one way or another except what we get from our sister network, sky news, in the united kingdom, which quite frankly is just beginning to try to figure this out themselves. police officers. they've not been any wild disturbances or fears of problems in paris as of late. of course, the french people have been having their share of problems with immigrants as you heard the ambassador say just a moment ago. they're having some serious problems with people that have come in from other countries and many cases want the cause us problems. the french are in the middle of a heady election season where the far right candidate is facing off against a far left candidate with a couple

moderates in the middle. the fear among those internationally that are witnessing this is that the percentages for the two candidates, the far extreme right candidate and the far extreme left candidate, they might be the two left in a run-off and then a government that might extricate itself from the european union and that could be the demise of the europe european union. the polls are suggesting one of the more moderate candidates should make it in and france will likely moderate. they're in the middle of their election seasoning. so we have this shooting along the champs elysees. rich edson works the state department for us and cheeking his sources there. rich, anything? >> we haven't heard back from the state department but this is one of the many international threads flowing through france right now. as you pointed out, we don't

have further information as to what the motivation of this shooting might be. you did talk about the elections ongoing and the french authorities have said they stopped and imminent terrorist attack in mercailles. and there are these what are known as low-grade attacks. those where people seize trucks, guns and attack open targets as opposed to high security areas like airports. they attack open crowds. that's something that the statement department has stressed that americans be concerned about when they go over there. this as the united states continues to try to figure out its way on how it's going to under the trump administration confront isis and not only isis in syria but how isis can inspire actors throughout the

region. shep? >> shepard: thanks. we've just gotten an english language feed from france 24. we want to listen in now. >> paris is under a heightened state of vigilance as a program that has been enforce here for several months now. but given that added coupled with the context of an imminent presidential election with candidates racing, scrambling, chris crossing the country in and extremely tight race, it's added to that sense of heightened anxiety. the candidates have been in close consultation with police and security officials. so this type of incident is the type of thing that they've been expecting in a sense. it doesn't come out of nowhere from the perspective of the campaign. they have been on alert for this time of incident. we're being told now, there's police sources saying at least

two people, not sure man or woman or what the genders are at this point, at least two involved in the shooting incidents. one was reported killed. earlier we said there was one person who had reportedly shot at these police officers, killing one, seriously wounding another. now we're hearing from police sources that it's at least two that we're being told by police sources were involved in the shooting incident. >> that shooting incident we should remind viewers, police have just in the last few minutes said that think there is a potential terrorist motivation for those shootings. they have not confirmed that. that's what we're getting from the police at the moment. of course, the champs elysees a center port of paris life. >> shepard: it's a place that american tourists and people from all around the world identify with. this story has reached another

level. we now know according to police sources there to france 24 and others, there was more than one gunman at the same time and police were targeted. once you start talking about a conspiracy rather than a lone gunman, who knows. but when you have more than one person killing police officers -- the early report was one gun wielding person had been killed. we don't know of the status of the other one. so this is escalating and fairly quickly. for those viewers just joining us, there's been a shooting on the champs elysees in paris three minutes past 9:00 in the evening on a thursday night. about 60 hours before the polls open for the first round of elections across france. two candidates of extreme parties, the left and the right, are battling it out against more

moderate candidates and more moderate parties. sunday, the first round of elections begin. it's that beginning. if anybody gets 50%, they will win. but nobody will. the polls have been very close and moving around. there was a time when there was great concern that the candidate of the far right and the candidate of the far left are the only ones that would get in there and france's future in the eu could be trouble. it's appearing that won't happen. who knows. we have all dealt with polls lately. now we're waiting to find out who these gunmen were, if there were in fact multiple ones as police are saying, who the victims were, and if there's anything larger going on here. france 24, the english language service live for us now. >> you know, if it's at some distance, certainly not an attack where they were. >> no. this was clearly, like i said before with the arrestser will ier in the week where the police

suspected somehow these suspects were preparing, were in the process of laying the final sort of groundwork for some sort of attack that would have targeted one or more of the presidential candidates. if that was the intention of whoever was involved in this incident, they clearly were not at the scene of the studios of france, the state broadcaster. but they could have chosen a more symbolic target. we have seen incidents in recent months, we had one a couple months back, an incident in the louvre museum under the carousel of the louvre. another, you know, highly symbolic -- you don't get more symbolic if you're trying to choose. the eiffel tower, the louvre museum. the champs elysees. even if you haven't been to paris, this will pop to mind. so indicating that they chose

this target deliberately, they chose this location deliberately for its symbolic reach knowing that central paris it will be on everyone's radar instantly. >> the police have been expecting this sort of an attack in the run up to the presidential elections. the three primary candidates had essentially been warned ahead of time in the attack that you mentioned had been waiting on this. >> this has been an election that has very much on the right side of the political spectrum -- very heavily focused on security issues, terrorism issues, protecting france and a lot of drtributary issues

surrounding that. it's too early to get to speculation, but i'll tell you one thing, the national front has been playing on a lot of those meat and potato issues in the past few days. a very, very closely fought french presidential contest. unlike france has seen in their modern history. these issues have been hammered home by the candidates again and again and again. >> just a remindser for for those joining us, reports of a shooting incident. one person said to have been killed, a second person wounded in the shooting in the champs elysees in central paris. that coming from police sources. the gunman has been killed, but police of course warning people not to come to that area in central paris. >> i'm a little bit surprised

that we have so early on some sort sort of indication that it could have been terrorism. the french have been -- the french authorities and police have been very, very careful not to put tags on these types of incidents. it's one thing the public does. on twitter there's all sorts of speculation. when it comes to the authorities and the police themselves, they've been weary of attacking tags and the motivations behind the tax unless they have something clear to go on. so the fact that so early on, there's police sources suggesting that they have reason to believe this might be a terrorist incident, that they know something at this point that we obviously don't know. they wouldn't just say that lightly given the context right now and given the high state of anxiety where you don't want to create necessary panic. >> shepard: we have france 24 to

whom you're listening now, our sister network sky news in the united kingdom, both news organizations are separately reporting there's two gunmen. there are other news organizations there's one. this sort of thing happens. remember the shooting in dallas? the police shooting in dallas. there were report after report after witness after witness there was more than one shooter. there was one here, one there. they heard the noises. as it turned out, there was one shooter that doesn't diminish the death and destruction wrought. but having a conspiracy of more than one is one sort of investigation and a lone person is another kind of investigation. if there's a conspiracy of two, one of the fears would have to be among authorities in paris that there could be more. because sometimes if there -- when there are attacks -- i'm not saying this is as you heard france 24 report, the police are

suggesting this may be a terrorist incident. you heard the presenter saying it's possible. the police are the ones that suggested that, not the news casters. so we're going to have to wait to see what has happened now in paris. we know the state department has sent out a notice to americans traveling overseas. you know, as you travel to certain countries, you can sets yourself up for alerts on the phone from the state department in case something weird happens. the state department has just cents out one of those briefs to people that signed up for their alerts saying if you're in paris, avoid the champs elysees, there's police activity there. the cops want it to remain a frozen zone at this moment. everybody is in there, they're getting them out. normally this is to err on the side of caution that there could be other incidents to follow. you've heard the news anchors in paris talking about this election and how divisive it's

been in the history of modern france, nothing to this degree with the polls so close, the rhetoric at a high level. the kind of things we experience here in the united states in a divisive election, they're having the same thing over there times two or three because there's so many candidates involved and the polls are all so close. the people are so divided on basic issues of security and border control and membership in the european union. enormous changes could come as a result of this election or paris could stay the course. let's go to josh letterman, foreign policy reporter for the associated press. josh, you have any reporting on this? >> shep we're confirming at the a.p. from paris police that one police officer has been killed along with an attacker. still a lot more details that need to be fleshed out about whether there were multiple attackers or other potential injuries or the motivation that we've talked about. we do at this early stage know about those fatalities and will

press for more details. you can't underi emphasizemphas pivotal this is. the election is being watched for which direction europe is going in. now the first round taking place sunday under the crowd of this attack in paris. >> shepard: a little bit -- a 101 basics of the -- we're getting a weird feedback from josh. josh, marie lepen on the far right. a far left candidate. both of those candidates are steering away from membership of the eu? >> that's right. the far left candidate wasn't on the radar as a major player in this election until recently. now seems to be searching. those that are hoping that europe will stay intact and france will stay part of the e.u., a lot of them are betting

on macron, the centrist candidate. president obama in the past few hours spoke to him, gave him not an official endorsement but his support in that race and we're seeing world leaders all over europe especially trying to discern whether the direction that france goes in this election will say something about the mood generally, whether the trends that we've seen with trump selection and with the brexit and elsewhere in europe will continue in france and potentially lead towards more and more countries trying to retrench behind their own borders or whether europe will say no, this is an important exercise for us to be part of one larger unit and move in the direction of that type of unity. >> shepard: these candidates, there's 11 candidates total for the french presidency. on this thursday night, it appears as i'm reading the websites, they're making their

final pitches for this job. marine le pen says let's get out of the e.u. if you get out of the u.e. and you're france, that's it for the european union and that free trade zone that has been so helpful for many and hurtful for others. hello, greece. catherine herridge is with us. catherine? >> one of the things that has changed in the last 18 months, especially in countries like france and britain, the police train for what they call maradding attacks. and whether it's a terrorist or criminal, the training of the police is to take down the suspect and to neutralize some and that essentially try and work back what their story may be. they operate on the assumption that these things come in twos and threes. that's why we're seeing the clearing of the champs elysees and the heavy police presence in other parts of the city.

what i would say about the champs elysees, it's much more than just a target that represents france. this is a economic target because those that visit the champs elysees in large part are people that are tourists, visiting the country and it has a big economic impact. as you know, reporting on this issue now for well over a decade, if it did turn out to have some kind of terrorism link, this is the kinds of economic target that they would want to select. finally, based on what we're hearing from france 24, the fact that the police are suggesting at this point there may be a terrorism connection. the individual that they have taken down may have been known to the intelligence services, shep. >> shepard: the french police and the french services do not jump to conclusions. >> that's correct. they're very conservative. >> very conservative and what they report and when they report it. they would rather give you the information.

we have an exact on where this happened. this is all of the roadways that lead from the center, this is the champs elysees. this white street area. much of this is pedestrian. if you go four blocks in, right here, we believe that this is the spot where this shooting has taken place. so by new york standards, about four blocks down the street. you saw the live pictures there. we can go back to them. still waiting to find out exactly who these -- catherine, i want to warn our viewers, multiple networks and news sources are reporting that there are multiple shooters. yet the associated providence, france, too, who is the state television there, state broadcaster, they're reporting there's one gunman and he has been killed. so as is so often in case in the early going, witnesses there and positive that they saw and heard something, they're just wrong.

because when you're in the middle of something that is so worldly to you and walking down the street and a police officer is shot and killed, that will screw up your perception. >> just imagine walking along the boulevard based on the close quarters of the architecture, people eating meals late at night, there's a shooting, the tables turn over, the chairs turn over, a lot of collateral noise. that can lead to confusing statements from witnesses that believe they're reporting what they believe actually happened. you raise an important point because in every scenario like this, the french police, other european forces are trained to anticipate that it's not just a single individual. there may be one attack but they have to anticipate it may be something broader and additional tax have been mapped out for later in the evening. >> shepard: we've just gotten new information, this is from our sister network, sky news of the united kingdom citing

multiple police sources. this gives us great pause. the word we've gotten now from sky news is that one police officer was in his police cruiser at a traffic light, which was red. the attacker pulled up and shot him from one vehicle into another. then there was a second shooting in that general vicinity. so this could explain the questions about whether there was one gunmen or two. sounds like at least one gunman was in a virginia teeirginia te vehicle -- vehicle and may have been on the move. we're not going to know for sure until police come to the microphones. clearly an escalating situation in paris. one police officer killed, multiple reports that the assailant, one assailant was taken down by police. we believe his life was ended. new pictures coming from paris from all the police cars lined up there. they have quite an investigation

underway as we approach 10:00 p.m. along the champs elysees. here domestically, we wait for a news conference from the italian prime minister and our president meeting for the first time. we don't know the reason it's delayed, but it is. this was to have begun at 3:50 p.m. eastern they light time. these sort of functions, two nations leaders coming together, their timing on these matters, though presidents are notoriously late for standard, hey, what's up, to viewers and white house press conferences and that sort of thing. for these state affairs, they're on time. now i can say the players are walking to the room there. i would guess that european leaders would be monitoring what's going on in paris. if this is an attack of some kind, you know how politics work

and people react. an incident like this could cause changes in the first round of the election and a change in the first round of the election -- let's put it this way. there's never been a second round of elections in paris in the history of paris of this government where there was not a center candidate. there's always a far left or right and a center in the run off. if it doesn't happen this time, it will be the first time that i can find in paris history, at least in the history of the whole fifth republic. john roberts is at the white house as we await this news conference between the italian prime minister and the president. john, is the delay about this? >> i don't expect so. this is something that could have come up in their discussions. paolo gentiloni and the

president would have made terrorism a topic. italy has been suffering a crisis of migration as well that they've had to deal with. as a nato ally, obvious, italy heavily divested in what happens and the question between the nato alliance and russia. so this is something that they will have been talking about. senior staff just coming in, which is why i'm looking over my shoulder. jared kushner just arrived, rex tillerson, h.r. mcmaster. should be getting underway very soon. >> shepard: we'll wait for that, john. continuing to watch developments in paris where the latest we have is at least one gunman has been killed and at least one police officer has been killed and another police officer has been wounded. for all of the events today, our stations across the nation are joining us for coverage of this news conference between the president and the italian prime minister. we'll have updates on paris. that begins now.

good afternoon from fox news world head quarters in new york. i'm shepard smith. we're awaiting a news conference between the italian prime minister and the american president. live pictures coming to us from the white house. we're expecting they're a couple minutes away and expected to talk trade and other matters ahead of the president's trip, first overseas after the first 92 days in office. it will be his first overseas trip and participate in g-7 summit where they will talk about any number of security matters and trade and all the rest. you can see the president is walking in. he may talk about a shooting that has happened along the champs elysees in france. against least one gunman, as our cable news viewers know, one gunman and a police officer have been killed and another wounded. let's listen in. >> prime minister gentiloni, welcome. >> great honor.

thank you. >> it's wonderful to have you in our wonderful people's house known as the white house. and so many great italian friends are with us today. and we renew always the deep ties of history and friendship that link together the american and the italian peoples. that history traces its roots to the timeless contributions of italy to civilization and human progress. so true. stretching all the way back to ancient rome. through the ages, your country has been a beacon of artistic and scientific achievement and that continues today. from venice to florence, from verdi to pavarotti, a friend of mine. great friend of mine. these bonds of history and

culture have only grown stronger as our two nations have become close partners, dear friends and very vital allies. mr. prime minister, i'm thrilled that you are here today to discuss how we can make this great relationship even more productive in the years to come. when the economy italy is one of america's largest trading partners. a lot of people don't know that. we left a trading are relationship that is reciprocal. i love that word, "reciprocal" and fair. betting of our countries and working together to achieve the outcome. that will happen. italy is also a key partner in the fight against terrorism. italy is now the seconds largest contributor of troops to the conflict in iraq and

afghanistan. i would also like to thank you, prime minister, for your leadership on seeking stabilization in libya and for your crucial efforts to deny isis a foot hold in the mediterranean. you fought hard. we're grateful for your role in the anti-isis campaign. all nations must condemn this barbaric enemy and support the effort to achieve its total and complete destruction. also as you know, mr. prime minister, we have more than 30,000 american service members, families and personnel that are stationed across your country. as we re-affirm our support for historic institutions, we must also re-affirm the requirement that everyone must pay their full and fair share for the costs of defense.

together we can address many pressing challenges including two that greatly affect both of our countries, those of love scale migration and international smuggling. maintaining strong borders is a part of any security policy and a responsible approach to refugees is one that seeks the eventual return of refugees to their home countries so that they can help to rebuild their own nations. finally, i want to say how much i look forward to visiting sicily for the g-7 as we seek to foster cooperation not only in matters of security but also science, commerce, health and technology. our two countries have shared interest and shared