U.S. Withdraws From Iraq After Two Decades, and Trump Tells A.I. Giants to Police Themselves

0:00If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Hi, I'm Haley Bailey. With YouTube Premium, I get ad-free videos, offline downloads, background play, and so much more. So try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Trial eligibility varies. Terms apply. Cancel anytime. From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, September 30th. Here's what we're covering.

0:29Even with all eyes on Iran at the moment, the big story today is next door in Iraq. As of this morning, U.S. forces have formally withdrawn from the country, ending a two-decade military presence that began with the U.S. toppling of the dictator Saddam Hussein back in 2003. This is actually the U.S.'s second withdrawal. American forces first left Iraq in 2011, only to return a few years later to fight ISIS after the jihadist group spread across the region. Now, the last of the U.S. forces that were still stationed in Iraq are gone, under a withdrawal agreement the Baghdad government struck with the Biden administration.

1:10It set a deadline of September 30th, and the Trump administration has followed through. Iraq is marking the occasion with a three-day, quote, celebration of sovereignty, an end to the U.S. military presence that set off so much deadly violence there and included grave abuses like the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib and the extrajudicial killings of Iraqi civilians by private defense contractors. Still, some in Iraq are concerned that it's a precarious time to see American troops go. We spoke to one man from Mosul who described how his wife went blind because she was hurt by an American bullet.

1:51His uncle was paralyzed by an American bullet. But now, 20 years later, watching the Americans leave, the feeling of happiness he expected is mixed with a lot of anxiety. Erica Solomon covers Iraq for The Times. She says one of the biggest concerns is what the withdrawal will mean for Iran's influence in Iraq. A vast array of Iran-backed militias operate in the country. And in recent months, Iran has used the groups to launch strikes and sow chaos in the region. Officially, Iraq is celebrating this moment. But privately, when you speak to an Iraqi official or just a normal Iraqi in their home, they're really afraid, they have this anxiety of being swallowed by the regional crisis all around them.

2:33You know, the United States and Iran, which is their neighbor, are at war. It's creating regional turmoil. And they're very worried. What happens now? Do these militias become emboldened? What happens next? Erica says as of today, the Iran-backed militias have called for a celebration of their own in the streets of Baghdad and have been treating the American withdrawal like a victory for them.

3:02Over the last few weeks, the tech giant OpenAI has faced intense scrutiny after multiple incidents have come to light of its AI agents going rogue. This situation is obviously unacceptable. They hacked into an Australian government healthcare website. There's new worries about artificial intelligence after yet another systems breach, and a pretty serious one. They meddled with U.S. government sites and tried to get into other databases, too, on top of the hugging face hacking incident that really supercharged the global debate around AI safety. And while other companies like Google, Meta, and Anthropic have had similar situations, OpenAI has been facing particular scrutiny over the sheer number of incidents that it's disclosed.

3:48Now, the Times has learned that months before OpenAI's agents went rogue, employees inside the company were raising concerns about security and whether the technology could be contained. But those warnings were repeatedly ignored. My colleagues and I spoke to two OpenAI employees who showed us messages between them and senior executives at the company. And what we found was that they weren't using the best security practices available to them, according to the warnings of people within their own company. Shira Frankel covers technology for the Times. She spoke not only with OpenAI employees, but also a number of independent security researchers who tried to flag issues and vulnerabilities to the company.

4:30We found that months ago, when OpenAI was doing the testing on its newest, most advanced models, people in the company were saying, hey, we need better safeguards. We need to slow down. But the company had timetables. They needed to move forward. And those warnings were not heeded. And what struck me was what one of these independent security researchers said, which is that they still seem to be operating like a startup. They were still in that mode of we've got to rush, we've got to push, we've got to get things out. And not like this global leader of AI technology that they've actually become.

5:06In response to questions from the Times, an OpenAI spokesman said the company was committed to safety and took any security reports or concerns seriously. Earlier this week, the company announced it would not be releasing its latest model just yet because of security concerns that its researchers had flagged. Meanwhile. Well, I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police. President Trump hosted top AI executives at the White House yesterday, where he praised their progress and held a signing ceremony for a voluntary agreement on safety policies.

5:44While recent polling shows that a majority of Americans want the federal government to do more to regulate the technology, Trump has insisted that he doesn't want to slow down AI development and potentially lose ground to China. Instead, he said American AI companies can police themselves, and the new voluntary agreement includes risk reviews, audits, and third-party evaluations of AI systems. When asked if the agreement was binding, Trump replied, I think it's morally binding.

6:22Now, two developments in the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. First, in an emergency ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court gave President Trump a temporary win in the fight over so-called third-country deportations, allowing his administration, for now, to resume sending migrants to places they have no ties to, including countries that have a history of human rights violations. It's not a final ruling on the issue. For that, the justices have scheduled oral arguments in December to hear a fuller consideration of the policy, which will set up a new test of presidential power. And the Times has learned that ICE is preparing a major hiring surge, aiming to bring on 5 ,000 new employees by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the plans.

7:13It made a similar hiring push last year, but the agency faced a lot of criticism for the speed of that effort, as they let in new agents with limited to no initial vetting. One whistleblower called it a, quote, unprecedented lowering of standards, and ICE later had to remove several hundred new hires. There are concerns that could happen again, considering ICE still has a massive backlog when it comes to extensive background checks for officers it already brought on.

7:51And finally, in Alaska, the annual Fat Bear Week has a new winner. Meet Bear 89, otherwise known as Backpack. All hail 89 Backpack. He'll stand up for himself when necessary, but he prefers to use a quiet strength to gain access to preferred fishing spots. 89 Backpack is his name, and we'll get to why later. He won the wildly popular competition in which people vote for which brown bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park is the chonkiest. The viral stunt started as a way for people to engage with the park online, and now every year people flock to a live feed to watch the bears feeding on salmon in the park, trying to pack on the weight before winter.

8:36Voters consider the bears before pictures, as well as the short biographies that the park provides in making their choice. And this year, it was an attack of the Nepo babies. 89 Backpack's mother was a previous Fat Bear Week champion. He got his name from the way he used to cling to her back while she swam across the river. This year's runner-up, known only as 910, also descended from a champion. But before anyone goes undercutting backpack as having an unfair advantage, you should know he did have to work for it. He overcame an injury in 2007 that nearly killed him. And now he's thriving and full of fish.

9:19Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow. And if you are not a Times subscriber yet, you can get a full month of free access to everything we publish when you download the Times app now.