coming up this hour, a powerful earthquake rocks morocco in the middle of the night, killing hundreds. we'll bring you the latest on the search and rescue operations. plus, president biden arrives at the g20 summit in new delhi, live to india for what we can expect from the meetings. possibly bad news for donald trump, a judge has rejected a bid by his former chief of staff mark meadows to move the case he faces in georgia to federal court. >> announcer: live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom" with kim brunhuber. we begin with breaking news out of morocco where the death toll from a powerful and devastating earthquake has gone up dramatically. the government says the quake overnight killed more than 600 people, and injured more than 300. and it's expected those numbers will rise, even more in the hours ahead. now, as you can see here, rescues are under way around the country. the u.s. geological survey says the 6.8 magnitude quake was the strongest in the region in more than 120 years. have a look at this video. video shows the harrowing moments late friday night as residents run for safety, some as you can see just barely escaping falling debris. cnn's larry medola joins us live from lagos, nigeria, the strongest earthquake in the region in hundreds of years. what more are we learning about the damage and rescue efforts? >> reporter: kim, this earthquake happened ab11:00 p.m overnight, forcing a lot of people in the streets, afraid of aftershocks, authorities warned that could still happen. the epicenter was in the high at lot mountains but the aftershocks and ftremors were felt -- 632 people have died, more than 329 have been injured but the fear is that these rescue operations continue those numbers could rise. rescue operations began almost immediately. they are trying to go to the hard to reach areas. the vast damage has been in these mountainous regions where people live far from each other. some roads are reported to be blocked or damaged from the effect of this earthquake. it's been a few hours of sunlight now, and so those rescue operations are under way, the moroccan government saying it's deploying all resources available to respond to it, and so part of the operation now is search and rescue operations pulling people who may be trapped under rubble, under debris, there are buildings that are reported to have collapsed so likely younger people, older people, people who might have been asleep when this happened could still be under that. so, the u.s. geological survey estimating that there's a 34% chance that between 100 to 1,000 people have tide. when this is all done and a full account is done, those numbers could be a lot higher. i want to show you just the level of anxiety so many people had spending the night in -- on the street because they're afraid the buildings could collapse on them. listen to this one man. >> translator: the house rocked aggressively. everyone was scared. and i was shocked and didn't understand what was happening. i thought it was only my house that was moving because it's fragile and old. i heard people screaming. everyone went out of their houses. the street is full of people and women screaming, that's what happened. even now people can't go back home because they're still afraid. >> reporter: the earthquake also damaged some historic buildings, especially in the nearest city of marrakech, a popular tourist destination. part of the walls, especially the historic part of the city go back to the 12th century. they have survived a lot of elements over the years and they were standing but this one seems to have taken out some of them. the depth of the earthquake was about 11.5 miles under the earth's surface, but even a shallow earthquake like this can still do extensive damage as we're seeing from the video, kim. >> absolutely. just tragic. all right, larry, thanks so much. earlier we heard from benjamin brown, a cnn researcher who happened to be in marrakech when the quake struck. here he is. >> the part of marrakech, i am in, outside the old city, things are relatively calm. people are still sleeping in the streets, definitely not as many as there were last night. many people decided to camp out in the streets in open areas and parking lots, just to avoid having to go back into buildings for fear of aftershocks or simply because their homes have been destroyed. that's a rather unusual sight this morning seeing people sleeping on the streets in makeshift beds, too scared to return home. another thing is people lining up for public buses with suitcases packed, many people trying to leave the city last night on motor bikes and cars, some even on horse back interrogatory to make their way out of marrakech, for fewer people now, but still a steady stream of people with suitcases trying to leave the city. >> we want to take you back to the new delhi and the other big story we're following, the annual g20 summit being hosted this year by india, opening remarks, the prime minister announced that the african union will become a permanent member of the g20, a major accomplishment for him. u.s. president joe biden won't have a chance to speak directly with two key players, vladimir putin and xi jinping who chose not to come. now, some observers openly woerpd if disagreements with the g20 over ukraine will result in no joint communique this year. cnn's kevin liptak joins us live from new delhi. on two of the most pressing issues, ukraine and climate change there's unlikely to be any consensus. for president biden what exactly are his realistic priorities here? >> reporter: well, president biden really came into the summit with a goal of convincing members of the developing world that the u.s. can be a good partner when it comes to investments, and he does have an opening there because president xi jinping of china is not attending this summit. he does want to sort of demonstrate that the u.s. is committed to showing up to these fora, and talking about the investments it will make in emerging economies. what you'll see today is president biden making announcements on infrastructure, including a major infrastructure project, a transit corridor going from asia through the middle east and eventually on to europe. that could be potentially a major challenge to china's trade infrastructure projects that it is looking to expand around the world. president biden also coming with proposals to reform, and invest in the world bank, potentially unlocking what the white house said is hundreds of billions of dollars in loans and grants for the developing world, so really trying to demonstrate that the u.s. is committed to that area of the world, and that has been sort of a centerpiece of this g20 that prime minister narendra modi has ensured the leaders are talking about that. but of course ukraine is casting a long shadow over these talks and in the leadup to the start of the summit today diplomats were furiously trying to come up with some kind of compromise language that would be included in a final statement about the war in ukraine. i'm told by a source that they have reached some sort of consensus language but it does remain to be seen whether the leaders themselves will actually sign off on that and put their names on that when the summit concludes tomorrow. whatever they do come up with is inevitably going to be watered down from what a u.s. european leaders would have wanted. last year's declaration said that most countries condemned the war in ukraine, of course that means thame did not.princi member of the g20, certainly the leaders will be talkinabt that today. we are told in his remks to the leaders at the summit meing earlier toy esident biden was going to raise this issue of convince some of these so-called fence sitts at are part of the g20, including india itself, but also brazil and south africa, to be more forceful in their condemnation of the invasion. certainly, president biden did have a number of tasks that he had set out for himself over the course of this summit, remains to be seen exactly what the conclusion will be. >> interesting. we'll check in with you next hour. kevin liptak in new delhi, thanks so much. a significant setback for mark meadows, the former trump white house chief of staff, on friday a judge rejected his bid to move his georgia election subversion case to federal court. meadows had argued that his case should be moved because his actions were connected to his official white house duties. the ruling doesn't bode well for donald trump who's also expected to try to get his case moved to federal court. cnn's evan perez reports. >> reporter: this is a 49-page decision, the judge really goes through chapter and verse of what evidence meadows presented, you remember he actually testified on his own behalf, and at the evidentiary hearing, and provided additional evidence for the judge to consider. and as a matter of fact, the judge points out that some of the things that meadows presented even in his testimony and evidence that his lawyers presented actually wens against him. they point out meadows had trouble even trying to explain the scope of his authority, the limits of his authority as a federal officer and they also said that meadows acknowledged that everybody on that phone call with brad raffensperger, all the lawyers were campaign lawyers. judge says where he describes t trying to do. he says the evidence at the hearinestablishes that the actions at the heart of the state's charges against meadows were taken on behalf of the trump campaign where the ultimate goal of affecting state election activitie one of the most interesting parts of this is he talks about the limits on federal officis' ability to interfere with state elections. he says, the executive branch cannot claim power to involve itself in state's elections procedures when the constitution clearly grants the states the power to manage elections under the elections clause. again, this portends, perhaps poorly, for other people. the judge makes clear, though, that this does not apply to anyone else because he's going to hear all of those other challenges when they come but it does really show they have an uphill climb ahead. >> a newly released report reveals a special grand jury in georgia recommended indicting more than twice as many trump allies as prosecutors eventually charged. sara murray reports. >> reporter: south carolina senator lindsey graham. >> that was my focus, how do you verify signatures? >> reporter: former georgia senator david perdue. >> there are huge irregularities in georgia, they need to be corrected in my opinion. >> reporter: and kelly loeffler. >> that's right, every legal vote to be counted. >> reporter: owl an of stunning list of 39 people that a special purpose grand jury recommended for indictment, after the panel spent months investigating efforts by former president donald trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election in georgia. >> it's not a short list. we heard a lot of very compelling things. like a lot of very compelling evidence. >> reporter: the special grand jury's final report now public, it recommended indictments for 21 individuals who did not end up facing charges in fulton county. including the current and former u.s. senators. georgia lieutenant governor bert jones, trump adviser and attorney boris epstein, and trump's former national security adviser michael flynn. but full conn county district attorney fani willis did ultimately charge the others on the list. >> a full conn county grand jury returned a true bill of indictment. charging 19 individuals with violations of georgia law. >> reporter: including trump and 18 co-defendants. >> you can't ever accept when they steal and rig and rob. >> reporter: another man, trump 2020 campaign official, mike roman was charged but was not mentioned in the special grand jury's recommendations. those who were charged have pleaded not guilty. while some recommended for charges are criticizing the prosecutors. >> it's very bad for the country. >> reporter: graham called georgia's secretary of state brad raffensperger in 2020. back then raffensperger told wolf blitzer he thought graham pressured him to toss legal ballots. >> he asked if the ballots could be matched back to the voters and then i got the sense that implied that then you could throw those out. >> reporter: the south carolina republican has denied that, insisting he was carrying out his legislative duty. >> we can't criminalize senators doing their job when they have a constitutional requirement to fulfill. >> reporter: perdue had urged georgia brian kemp to -- in a meeting also attended by loeffler. all as loeffler and perdue were facing a senate runoff election? january 2021. >> my number one objective right now is winning so we can get to the bottom of what happened in the elections. >> they both lost their runoff races. >> rudy giuliani, one of the defendants in the georgia election case, has filed a new legal challenge against the criminal charges he faces, the former attorney of donald trump has asked a judge to dismiss his indictment or at least set a motions hearing on the matter. prosecutors have charged giuliani with 13 crimes, accusing him of pedaling claims about voter fraud to state legislators but he argues that there are deficiencies in the indictment that render it invalid. hurricane lee has lost some of its punch, but it's still a major storm and may restrengthen yet again. the national hurricane center says lee is now a category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour, or 185 kilometers per hour. lee is expected to pass well north of the virgin islands in puerto rico in the next few days, but the region will experience swelling that could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, dangerous surf is also expected along most of the east coast, on the u.s. beginning sunday and monday. and have a look at this video showing lightning that was recorded during the hurricane hunter's flight inside the eye of the storm thursday night, that strengthened to a category 5 storm. we expect a new advisory from the national hurricane center later this hour. the number of people still missing after those deadly wildfires in maui, hawaii have come down again, authorities say 66 people remain unaccounted for. hawaii's governor stressed on friday that that number was initially more than 3,000 in august when the fires struck, and a little less than 400 last week. but officials have made a great deal of progress, they say, locating people, the number of deaths remains at 115. officials plan to reopen west maui to visitors and end all travel restrictions likely on october 8th. still to come here on cnn newsroom, the race to save lives after a russian missile hits a city in northeastern ukraine and survivors are trapped under the rubble. the manhunt for an escaped convicted killer intensifies with more confirmed sightings, the latest on the inmate who crab walked off prison. coming up, stay with us. with double leak guards that help prevent gusheses escaping from the sides. and a rapid dry core that locks in your heaviest gushh quickly for up to zero leaks. always discreet- the protecection we deserve! want luxury hair repair that doesn't cost $50? pantene's pro-vitamin formula repairs hair. as well as the leading luxury bonding treatment. for softness and resilience, without the price tag. if you know... you know it's pantene. we have dramatic video of rescue efforts after a russian strike in northeastern ukraine. have a look. it shows emergency workers putting out a fire and digging through the rubble after a cruise missile hit the city of sumi on friday, officials say three people were wounded, include ck two people pulled from beneath a building destroyed by the strength. earlier in the day have a look. so this footage shows the moment when another missile hit, president volodymyr zelenskyy's hometown, it hit the center of the city, killing one person and leaving 54 others injured. ten buildings were damaged. russian missiles have killed three people in kherson and wounded fours. now, russia is trying to put a veneer of legitimacy on its occupation of parts of ukraine. people in four regions began heading to the polls on friday for what's officially dubbed regional elections. voting will be under way until sunday even though the international community dismissed the process as a sham, ukrainian officials called on people not to participate. and one woman in the city of mariupol says the vote that has nothing to do with normal elections and people know who will win anyway. for more, fred pleitgen joins us from london, the so-called elections, strange timing, what's moscow hoping to accomplish? >> essentially what moscow is hoping to accomplish is to give legitimacy to the fact they occupy these territories and these are now territories of the russian federation that will always remain territories of the russian federation, something vladimir putin has said in the past. the first problems already appear when we look at the map we've been showing, the fact that the russians don't even control all of those territories, where they say that they are now part of the russian federation. if you look specifically at zaporizhzhia and kherson, russia is not even controlling the majority of those territories and we can see on the map there, donetsk, russians only control half of that. the ukrainians are calling these elections a sham, say they violating the rights of the people who are on the ground there, and live in these territories, the ukrainians are saying that in some cases officials are going door to door and taking people to polling stations, obviously to make it appear as though more people want to participate this these elections than actually do. the russians, of course, putting a different face on this, saying it's important to hold these local elections. it's quite interesting because there's also local elections happening in other parts of russia as well, seemingly trying to portray as though these regions are now just an average part of the russian federation and therefore part of the political system, of course, as well. and the russians are urging people to go and vote in these elections saying that the folks who are going to be elected into office will represent the populations there going forward as you mentioned, organizations of the international community also blasting these elections, the international council of europe saying that this is a flagrant violation of international law, kim. >> yeah, absolutely, and then fred, in the meantime, the counteroffensive on top of what we're seeing right now on the front lines, a lot of preparation going on for a future campaign as well, you've been looking into this. >> yeah, there certainly is. i think one of the things we're seeing from the ukrainians on the one hand they want to keep pushing this counteroffensive and need support for that. and they're looking longer term as well, we've seen that with the f-16s they've been asking for from the international community which seem to be not on their way, but in the works, that's something that's longer term and main battle tanks as well. one of the things we looked at yesterday was also that very good interview that fareed -- did with president zelenskyy of ukraine where he urged patience with the counteroffensive but also said that ukraine needed long-term support. here's what we're learning. >> reporter: ukrainian troops assaulting russian positions in eastern ukraine. kyiv says its forces are piling on the pressure both here and on the southern front line, and are gearing up for more. these soldiers practicing mountain warfare specifically to assault russian-occupied crimea. >> translator: if we come to crimea there is a big possibility we would really need