diff --git a/examples/rl_gsm8k/orchestrate_rl.py b/examples/rl_gsm8k/orchestrate_rl.py
index be5d16b3..fdbcd8e7 100644
--- a/examples/rl_gsm8k/orchestrate_rl.py
+++ b/examples/rl_gsm8k/orchestrate_rl.py
@@ -357,6 +357,7 @@ def main(cfg: DictConfig):
         logger.info("Removing leading white space from the model. This is necessary for DeepSeek models")
 
     while state["iteration"] < cfg.max_iterations:
+        logger.info(f"Starting iteration {state['iteration']}")
         start_iteration = time.time()
         if os.path.exists(finetune_path / "current"):
             assistant_model_path = str(finetune_path / "current")
diff --git a/tapeagents/llms.py b/tapeagents/llms.py
index e7a1bc26..7745a45f 100644
--- a/tapeagents/llms.py
+++ b/tapeagents/llms.py
@@ -580,8 +580,10 @@ def _generate(self, prompt: Prompt) -> Generator[LLMEvent, None, None]:
                 content = data["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
                 if self.remove_leading_white_space:
                     # vllm sometimes adds a whitespace at the beginning of the completion
-                    assert content[0] == " "
-                    content = content[1:]
+                    if content[0] == " ":
+                        content = content[1:]
+                    else:
+                        logger.error(f"Expected leading white space in completion: \n{content}")
                 if not content:
                     logger.warning(f"Empty completion {data}")