#Classified Ad Software

[businessadvis321]

Key Revenue Factors for Your Classified Marketplace in 2024

In today's tech-driven era, the classified business has emerged as a super business with the power of technology. Businesses have changed their work algorithm in a convenient, quick, and hassle-free way. 

While the core concept remains the same, the transition to digital platforms has made the experience seamless. Enter into a world of seamless and profitable Classified Software business experiences. In a constantly evolving world, your approach to buying and selling should evolve too.

Adapting to the new change - the classifieds script is the key to unlocking your business success. How did the classified ad script elevate your business success? 

This article explores strategies to maximize the revenue of your classified ads business. 

Let's begin with some enlightening statistics!

What is a Classified Marketplace?

A few years ago, people often confused classified advertising with traditional classified ad script businesses, where goods were listed for resale in newspapers. Interested buyers would contact sellers directly to negotiate prices.

In today's fast-paced world, newspapers have also gone digital, and so has classified advertising. Classified software emerged, enabling users to buy and sell items directly, without intermediaries. This shift has facilitated a transition to a customer-to-customer (C2C) model in classifieds.

C2C online marketplace apps are similar to e-commerce apps. The only difference is, that in classified applications, people can sell their used goods. Letgo and OfferUp are a notable classified marketplace to buy and sell used products.

Growing Demand for Classified Marketplace

The online classified market is dynamic and evolving, facing exciting challenges. Studies indicate a positive outlook among industry leaders about its future. A significant 84% of CEOs and owners in online classified enterprises expressed optimism about the market's prospects in the coming years.

The business model in classifieds is increasingly emphasizing transactional incomes. Currently, revenues from transactional services constitute an average of 15% of companies' total revenues, with expectations to grow up to 50% in the future.

Looking ahead, the online classifieds market is projected to reach $741.47 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.80% during the forecast period from 2024 to 2032.

Industry reports also highlight the future plans among companies, with 57% planning to launch new products and 59% intending to hire new employees in the coming years. 

Furthermore, 39% of surveyed businesses plan to modify their operations within the next 3-5 years to stay competitive and innovative in the dynamic classified industry.

How does a Classified Marketplace Make Money?

Each online platform adopts different monetization strategies. Here are the most commonly used models across the classified marketplace like Letgo:

In-App Advertisement 

Harnessing in-app advertisements effectively boosts individual user product visibility on the platform. Here's how integrating targeted in-app advertising can drive revenue:

Implement Targeted Advertising: Set up a system that lets sellers display their products to a specific audience based on user preferences, location, and search history. This targeted approach improves user engagement and increases the possibility of conversions.

Encourage User Engagement: To maximize earnings, focus on keeping users engaged on your classified software for longer periods. Enable sellers to create special offers, discounts, or bundled deals that attract more buyers. 

This not only promotes individual listings but also encourages multiple purchases, thereby increasing overall sales and revenue.

Membership Fee 

Another effective way to monetize a classifieds script is by implementing membership fees. This can be divided into two categories: special features for a price and subscription plans.

Special Features for a Price 

Offer special features to premium users. For example, users can pay to have their listings appear at the top of search results. This not only generates revenue but also provides added value to users willing to pay for extra visibility.

Subscription Plans 

While not all marketplaces use this feature, subscription plans can be a valuable addition to increase revenue. By offering different plans, users can choose a level of service that suits their needs. 

For instance, a platform like Contentplace might offer three subscription plans, each providing various benefits based on the price. Casual users can opt for a basic plan, while more frequent users might choose a premium plan for additional features. 

This tiered approach caters to different user needs and maximizes the revenue potential of your classified ads marketplace.

Seller Fee

The seller fee is similar to the membership fee. Sellers pay a small amount to list their products on the platform, typically between 1% and 5% of the sale price.

Interestingly, some platforms allow sellers to decide how much they want to charge. For small traders or those selling just a few items, the fee might be minimal. This flexibility makes it easier for sellers to list their products without significant upfront costs.

Charging a listing fee benefits the platform by generating revenue while providing value to sellers. If the platform effectively connects sellers with buyers, most sellers will be willing to pay a small fee for the increased exposure and sales opportunities.

Transaction Fees

Every online buy-sell marketplace uses transaction fees to generate revenue. This approach involves charging a fee from buyers to facilitate smooth exchanges of goods and services on the classified ad script platform. The fee charged is known as the transaction fee.

You can either set a fixed amount as a transaction fee or decide on a specific percentage to keep from every transaction amount.

In-App Purchases

A classified website script can generate income through in-app purchases rather than from app downloads or sales. This allows sellers to draw attention to their listings and sell their products quickly.  

For instance, users can pay to “feature” a listing. This places the listing at the top of the user’s feed and highlights it with a unique “Features” ribbon. Additionally, it adds a button that allows buyers to contact the sellers with a single tap. Sellers can choose to feature their product listing for 24 hours, 3 days, or 7 days. 

While the core functionality of the marketplace - buying and selling is free, users can pay for special features to enhance their experience. 

This revenue model encourages wide app utilization and increases brand awareness, as customers are more likely to try something out when it’s free. 

Wrapping Up

Now that you have understood the key revenue strategies for classified software. By implementing a combination of these revenue factors and continually adapting to user behavior, your classified marketplace can thrive in the competitive classified ads script market and generate substantial revenue. 

All you need to do is reach out to the right development team and pick a robust classified ad script to start your classified business instantly!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tech’s benevolent-dictator-for-life to authoritarian pipeline

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/10/bdfl/#high-on-your-own-supply

Silicon Valley's "authoritarian turn" is hard to miss: tech bosses have come out for autocrats like Trump, Orban, Milei, Bolsonaro, et al, and want to turn San Francisco into a militia-patrolled apartheid state operated for the benefit of tech bros:

https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat

Smart people have written well about what this means, and have gotten me thinking, too:

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/why-did-silicon-valley-turn-right

Regular readers will know that I make a kind of hobby of collecting definitions of right-wing thought:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/29/jubilance/#tolerable-racism

One of these – a hoary old cliche – is that "a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged." I don't give this one much credence, but it takes on an interesting sheen when combined with this anonymous gem: "Conservatives say they long for the simpler times of their childhood, but what they miss is that the reason they lived simpler lives back then wasn't that the times were simpler; rather, it's because they were children."

If you're a tech founder who once lived in a world where your workers were also your pals and didn't shout at you about labor relations, perhaps that's not because workers got "woke," but rather, because when you were all scrapping at a startup, you were all on an equal footing and there weren't any labor relations to speak of. And if you're a once-right-on tech founder who used to abstractly favor "social justice" but now find yourself beset by people demanding that you confront your privilege, perhaps what's changed isn't those people, but rather the amount of privilege you have.

In other words, "a reactionary tech boss is a liberal tech boss who hired a bunch of pals only to have them turn around and start a union." And also: "Tech founders say things were simpler when they were running startups, but what they miss is that the reason no one asked their startup to seriously engage with the social harms it caused is the because the startup was largely irrelevant to society, while the large company it turned into is destroying millions of peoples' lives today."

The oft-repeated reactionary excuse that "I didn't leave the progressive movement, they left me," can be both technically true and also profoundly wrong: if progressives in your circle never bothered you about your commercial affairs, perhaps that's because those affairs didn't matter when you were grinding out code in your hacker house, but they matter a lot now that you have millions of users and thousands of employees.

I've been in tech circles since before the dawn of the dotcoms; I was part of a movement of people who would come over to your house with a stack of floppies and install TCP/IP and PPP networking software on your computer and show you how to connect to a BBS or ISP, because we wanted everyone to have as much fun as we were having.

Some of us channeled that excitement into starting companies that let people get online, create digital presences of their own, and connect with other people. Some of us were more .ORG than .COM and gave our lives over to activism and nonprofits, missing out on the stock options and big paydays. But even though we ended up in different places, we mostly started in the same place, as spittle-flecked, excited kids talking a mile a minute about how cool this internet thing would be and helping you, a normie, jump into it.

Many of my peers from the .ORG and .COM worlds went on to set up institutions – both companies and nonprofits – that have since grown to be critical pieces of internet infrastructure: classified ad platforms, online encyclopedias, CMSes and personal publishing services, critical free/open source projects, standards bodies, server-to-server utilities, and more.

These all started out as benevolent autocracies: personal projects started by people who pitched in to help their virtual neighbors with the new, digital problems we were all facing. These good people, with good impulses, did good: their projects filled an important need, and grew, and grew, and became structurally important to the digital world. What started off as "Our pal's project that we all pitch in on," became, "Our pal's important mission that we help with, but that also has paid staff and important stakeholders, which they oversee as 'benevolent dictator for life.'"

Which was fine. The people who kicked off these projects had nurtured them all the way from a napkin doodle to infrastructure. They understood them better than anyone else, had sacrificed much for them, and it made sense for them to be installed as stewards.

But what they did next, how they used their powers as "BFDLs," made a huge difference. Because we are all imperfect, we are all capable of rationalizing our way into bad choices, we are all riven with insecurities that can push us to do things we later regret. When our actions are checked – by our peers' social approval or approbation; by the need to keep our volunteers happy; by the possibility of a mass exodus of our users or a fork of our code – these imperfections are balanced by consequences.

Dictators aren't necessarily any more prone to these lapses in judgment than anyone else. Benevolent dictators actually exist, people who only retain power because they genuinely want to use that power for good. Those people aren't more likely to fly off the handle or talk themselves into bad places than you or me – but to be a dictator (benevolent or otherwise) is to exist without the consequences that prevent you from giving in to those impulses. Worse: if you are the dictator – again, benevolent or otherwise – of a big, structurally important company or nonprofit that millions of people rely on, the consequences of these lapses are extremely consequential.

This is how BDFL arrangements turn sour: by removing themselves from formal constraint, the people whose screwups matter the most end up with the fewest guardrails to prevent themselves from screwing up.

No wonder people who set out to do good, to help others find safe and satisfying digital homes online, find themselves feeling furious and beset. Given those feelings, can we really be surprised when "benevolent" dictators discover that they have sympathy for real-world autocrats whose core ethos is, "I know what needs to be done and I could do it, if only the rest of you would stop nagging me about petty bullshit that you just made up 10 minutes ago but now insist is the most important thing in the world?"

That all said, it's interesting to look at the process by which some BDFLs transitioned to community-run projects with checks and balances. I often think about how Wikipedia's BDFL, the self-avowed libertarian Jimmy Wales, decided (correctly, and to his everlasting credit), that the project he raised from a weird idea into a world-historic phenomenon should not be ruled over by one guy, not even him.

(Jimmy is one of those libertarians who believes that we don't need governments to make us be kind and take care of one another because he is kind and takes care of other people – see also John Gilmore and Penn Jillette:)

https://www.cracked.com/article_40871_penn-jillette-wants-to-talk-it-all-out.html

Jimmy's handover to the Wikimedia Foundation gives me hope for our other BDFLs. He's proof that you can find yourself in the hotseat without being so overwhelmed with personal grievance that you find yourself in sympathy with actual fascists, but rather, have the maturity and self-awareness to know that the reason people are demanding so much of you is that you have – deliberately and with great effort – created a situation in which you owe the world a superhuman degree of care and attention, and the only way to resolve that situation equitably and secure your own posterity is to share that power around, not demand that you be allowed to wield it without reproach.

[aston-axo]

Niki Lauda and James Hunt — Friday 18th July 1975 Silverstone - Practice Runs for the Grand Prix

ATV Sports Reporter Gary Newbon interviews championship leader, Niki Lauda from Austria and Britain's James Hunt, about the race and the new car they will soon be driving. In 1975 James Hunt was driving for Hesketh Racing and Lauda was driving for Scuderia Ferrari.

In the race, Niki Lauda would hold fourth place off the start, but soon a heavy shower brought a flurry of tyre changes. A wheel had not been fastened when Niki was released and fell off within 20 meters, resulting in a scramble to reattach it. He stopped again a lap later for it to be tightened properly, and rejoined a lap down.

As the track dried, he showed blistering speed: four seconds a lap faster than the rest, but then came another deluge and the field was decimated by a series of aquaplaning shunts and the race red-flagged. The official results announced shortly afterwards were based on a count-back lap, which meant that Niki was classified eighth despite being third across the line. Ferrari protested, but without result.

James hunt would make it to the final lap without major incident, before retiring along with many other drivers. His final position: fourth, was unaffected.

A miserable race for the both of them, all in all.

[Comparisons between versions and editors notes are below the cut.]

Clipped and Cropped • Colour Corrected • Removed Colour Cast • Upscaled with Artemis • Denoised • Sharpened and Enhanced • Recovered Original Detail • Added Noise and Film Grain • 60fps Frame Interpolation • Edited Gamma and Exposure • Stabilised • Audio Cleaned • Manual Cleaning of Degraded Film

• While the lower logo is a lost cause, I had a real good go at cleaning up the upper logo. Despite it being easy to remove in James' zoom sections, where it hovered and moved over the banner made the erasure too disruptive and time intensive to clean up in whole.

• I did all the film cleaning manually, therefore it's very likely I missed out on some damage. I got all the major stuff though.

• At the beginning, for god knows what reason, the upscaler has a hissy fit and throws up coloured blocks. Incredibly annoying, but I couldn't find a way to fix it.

• The video is dark at the start due to cloud cover, and it's more noticeable without the colour cast, there's better lighting by the end.

• There's much more to the original video: cars practising at the track, a later interview by Niki in 1977, and a separate one of James the same year. I cut those, so I could focus on this interview, and because the film degradation of the practice runs is noticeably severe. But, if people are interested, I'm very happy to also tidy those.

• I'm here nor there on the cleaned up audio. I wish there was an easy software where I could more manually tune it.

• I snipped off like a second of the end because the degradation got so bad it was easier just to cut it since James had finished talking by that point anyway.

Despite all this, please enjoy.

[reikiajakoiranruohoja]

Murder Drones: To become a person

WARNING: Discussion of death and trauma as well as body horror and abuse. PLEASE take care.

I might write a fic about this, but one thing I really enjoy about the way the Disassembly Drones in Murder Drones work is that they are the very opposite of a clean, efficient killer robot.

Look at your basic android or the Terminators in Terminator. They might wear the skin of humanity, but they are all machine underneath. They are hiding their inhumanity beneath the facade of humanity.

The DDs all look like someone took a children's interactive toy robot and made it into a killer. But lift their clean white shell and underneath you see muscle and blood. You see a beating core, not unlike a heart.

The DDs are humanity hiding behind the shell of artificiality.

I've already written an essay about this, but I want to discuss the psychological and spiritual effects further in this mini-essay.

Let's start with Tessa's little DIY hair project; Tessa, according to Liam, literally dug up corpses of her relatives to use their hair on her drones.

It is hinted that she bleached the hairs, but unless Tessa had the patience of a saint to reroot every single hair onto a drone's head, she still most likely just attached the whole scalp onto the drone.

The reason I bring this up is that giving an inanimate object something organic is often treated as a way to tie the object to a person. Hair is often used for these things, because it is the easiest to get without drawing attention.

Though drones aren't literally inanimate objects, one can make a case that they'd be counted as inanimate when it comes to spirituality.

So when Tessa gave her drones the hair of dead people, she was, in effect, giving them a tie to a soul. Since the hair donors and the drones themselves were dead, one might even make the case that she might have tried to do a little bit of necromancy on the side.

While sci-fi has discussed the role of an artificial soul, I have rarely seen it tackle the concept of an organic soul as a tangible thing.

Tessa's drones were given souls, at least in the spiritual sense. They weren't just machines of labour for her; they were her friends.

When the Absolute Solver began making the DDs, it started with giving flesh to the machines (V basically had her extra parts pasteded on yey during the gala) and only later gave them actual mechanical parts.

Even then, all machinery is on the outside, while the insides became squishy with muscle, bone and blood.

In addition, given how Solver Drones work, one gets the feeling that the DDs' regeneration also added more flesh to their bodies as time went on.

Then we add animal instincts and knowledge of how to use their extra parts (wings, tail and extra eyes.) And suddenly, what was once purely machinery is now a cyborg.

Imagine how it must feel to go from a thinking machine to a creature of flesh and blood. How the software is suddenly aided or even supplemented by wetware.

How would that affect the way the drone sees itself? Or how it would think, given it no longer is just simulating emotions. I'm not saying the DD have more 'real' emotions than the WDs, but organic emotions aren't just in the brain; they are also hormones and the body reacting to them. Or the brain reacting to the body digesting something.

How many DDs have literally thought they were dying when having a panic attack, or who turned to substance abuse to dull their uncontrollable emotions in some way?

The Disassembly Drones are an interesting case when it comes to how they are classified as creatures and, therefore, spiritually. Though the first thing that comes to mind is the vampire from Eastern European myths, the way they are discussed and their initial lair staging does not match how a vampire is typically depicted.

When we see Uzi walk to the spire, notice how it is staged. In your typical vampire fiction, the lair of a vampire would be a rundown mansion or a graveyard. But the walk to the spire doesn't use the way a mansion or a graveyard is depicted.

Instead, the walk to the spire is depicted as Uzi walking into the den of a literal beast. We see the classic 'bones' litter the outside of the den, and everything reads as if Uzi is going to face a dragon or a werewolf. Not a vampire.

Her reaction to N speaking shows this as well. Uzi is savvy enough to know that a vampire can speak. So Uzi (and, therefore, the audience) doesn't read N as a vampire but instead as a vicious beast running on autopilot.

It is only after getting to know N that the vampire tropes start applying to him and other DDs. Even then, only the most animalistic vampire tropes apply, aside from the way J and V look. The DDs sleep like bats; they hunger for oil in a very visceral way, when they eat, it is messy, and they are (technically) undead.

(As an aside, the DDs are one of the few 'blood' eater depictions that match how actual vampire bats eat. That is, they create a bleeding wound and drink from it.)

The DDs do not have any sort of mind control powers, nor are they known to be charming. J and V's design look sexualized, but neither uses this to their advantage.

What this means is that the DDs are not seen as 'drones but gone wrong' like a vampire is typically depicted. Instead, they are seen as vicious predators that have no mercy or table manners.

DDs are robbed of their humanity, among other drones. They are treated as monsters like manticores or harpies with the expectation that they cannot even speak.

So the DDs are cut off from their WD peers not just by looking different but by being vastly different mentally and spiritually as well. The main three were resurrected and given parts of dead people by a human, then they were further transformed by an entity best described as an Eldrich Abomination AI.

This change in body and soul can be read as an allegory for trauma and its effects. None of our trio get away unscathed from the gala massacre, and the way they deal with it reflects real responses to trauma and continuing abuse.

V puts on a violent mask and pushes others away so she isn't hurt anymore, nor (she thinks) can those she loves be hurt if she stays away. Doing so, V leaves N vulnerable to further abuse and completely isolates him from any positive interaction. In the end, all that she did was in vain, as the Solver would have hurt N no matter what V did.

For J, the new boss might as well be the old boss. Both are equally cruel, and the only difference between the humans she serves and the Solver is that the Solver has greater ambitions and wears the skin of the person J cared about the most. J's way to cope is to play by the rules blindly and start abusing the 'weakest' of her group worse than before. Out of the trio, J has the least hope for the future. She believes she is stuck in the cycle of violence the Solver runs and so plans just to survive day to day.

If N had a choice, his reaction to trauma might have been amnesia. But he was never given a choice; instead, his memories are constantly being erased, and he is being paraded around because the Solver is obsessed with him. Because N doesn't remember the gala or being experimented on (aside from nightmares), he is not burdened by the violence. Instead, his trauma is from the total isolation and abuse he faces from V and J, to which he has taken to fawning over both just in case either starts actually treating him better.

There is very little about the DDs that isn't more tied to tropes of monsters or the horror of the flesh. As I said at the start, they are very much the opposite of your typical human-skin robot. They are messy, burdened by organic flaws and emotions and are far from logical.

[darkmaga-returns]

Brave Software launched Cookiecrumbler, an open-source tool (April 2025) that detects and neutralizes deceptive cookie consent pop-ups using AI, preserving privacy while maintaining site functionality.

The tool scans websites via proxies, uses open-source LLMs to classify cookie banners, and suggests precise blocking rules—avoiding invasive tracking or site breakage.

Detected pop-ups undergo human review to minimize errors, with findings published on GitHub for collaborative refinement by developers and ad-blockers.

Unlike traditional blockers (which risk breaking sites), Cookiecrumbler tailors rules per website and processes data on Brave’s backend—never on users’ devices.

The tool exposes the failure of GDPR-like regulations to enforce true consent, offering a stopgap until stronger legal accountability emerges. It signifies a shift toward usable privacy.

[heidi891]

My Digital Minimalism Journey

Doomscrolling. Smartphone addiction. Google this, Google that. Sounds familiar? I've begun a journey to untangle myslef from American megacorps and declutter my digital life.

I consider Google the worst big corporation, because while Microsoft and Apple sell products (hardware, software), Google's basically an advertising company. We are Google's products—that's why Google can give us so much for free and still make so much money. "But I have nothing to hide." Me too. I don't commit crimes, I don't watch pornography, I don't do anything classified. If everyone suddenly could see everything I do online, I'd just be slightly embarrased, that's all. But monopolies are illegal and dangerous for a reason. They erode freedom, shape our reality, leave us no alternative, influence our beliefs. I know I'm not immune to this, even though it's easy to believe otherwise.

Another factor I take into account is using local products to support my country's (Poland's) and Europe's economy and security.

Google Search

I noticed long time ago that Google Search became far from ideal, full of ads and focused on shopping. For example, when I looked for information about a medicine, I saw a long list of online pharmacies. I started using Bing, because it gave me information I was looking for—the medicine's description and side effects. (My husband is happy with Google, but his searches involve more shopping, like buying things for his hobbies and renovations.) Recently I've started using Qwant—a French search engine that uses their own index to some extent and Bing. Some people like German Ecosia that uses Google search results AFAIK.

Browser

The problem with browsers is that most of them are based on Chromium (not to be confused with Google Chrome). Chromium, Safari's Webkit and Mozilla's Gecko are like engines beneath the hoods that are browsers. Browsers may have different functions like adblocks, tab management or favourites, but those three are what allows browsers to read and display websites. While Chromium is open source, it's controlled and developed by Google.

I decided to use Mozilla Firefox with turned off telemetry and Qwant and uBlock Origin extensions. Mozilla, though American, is open source and non profit.

Update: I also installed Privacy Badger extension.

E-mail

Almost twenty years ago, as a teenager, I set up my mailbox on Onet—a Polish news portal. When I got married and changed my last name, I changed my mailbox too, to Gmail. Recently I've started using my old mailbox again when I discovered that I could create an alias for my current last name. In my Gmail I set up my mail to be forwarded to my current mailbox and deleted from Gmail. It isn't perfect, because the mail still reaches Google servers, but I changed most logins and I hardly get any mail there.

If you're from Poland, you can check out wp.pl and O2, they have mailboxes too. Otherwise, Swiss Proton and German Tuta are popular, especially amongst those who care much about privacy. Swiss Infomaniak offers a mailbox in Western Europe. There may be some good mailbox providers in your country, you can look it up.

Contacts

I deleted my contacts from Google and store them locally on the phone. I have backups saved on a pedrive and in a cloud.

Calendar

I've started using a paid Polish app called Domownik (dom means home, so the name means it's an app for home, for household matters). I keep my private calendar there and tasks, and recipes, and weekly menu, and a shopping list that I share with my husband, and some notes that I used to keep in Google Keep and Microsoft OneNote. It's Polish and family oriented, so it isn't a good choice for everyone. Some mailbox providers offer calendars too. You may also think about a paper calendar.

Google Drive, OneDrive

I still use them to some extent. We pay for a family plan on OneDrive. Unfortunately, when I checked European providers like Filen, Proton, Koofr, Cryptee, kDrive, Jottacloud, Hetzner... (if you just want a few GB of storage for free, check them out), it turned out OneDrive is cheaper. My husband loves photo remainders there too. I want to use Swiss pCloud where you can pay once for a lifetime. They also offer nice photo gallery and playlists made from your files. I hope I manage to change it this year.

Google Maps

I checked out a few navigation apps like HERE WeGo, Magic Earth and Organic Maps, but eventually decided to use mapy.com (former mapy.cz). You can download one country's map for free and they have great hiking trails map. I know it works best for Czech Republic and its neighbours (which I happen to be), so I'm not sure if it's as good in other countries.

There's an option to share location, but currently I'm the only one in my family who use it, so I haven't had a chance to try it out. Location sharing is the only reason why I'm still keeping Google Maps on my phone. Next time we're visiting my parents I'll try location sharing in WhatsApp and if it works, I could get rid of Google Maps.

For public transport I use Polish app jakdojade.pl.

Google Docs, Microsoft Office

I've used LibreOffice for years (and OpenOffice before that), so I don't need to change much on my PC. However, I used Google Docs and Sheets on my phone. I had a Google Sheets file for recording my weight. I decided I'm going to keep a digital version of that as ODS (LibreOffice file) on my PC (with a backup in a cloud) and I'll start noting my weight and pressure in a notebook, so if I ever have to show it to a doctor, I can just bring it with me. I used to write fanfiction in Google Docs, so I'm either coming back to writing on my PC in LibreOffice or I'll try French Cryptpad.

Update: I ended up using FreeOffice. It isn't perfect, but it works and that's what's most important.

Google Translate

I've started using German DeepL instead.

Social Media

I have a blog and used to have fanpages on Facebook and Instagram. I don't offer any services or sell any products; it's a project born out of passion. Running a fanpage was so time consuming and hardly anyone was interested in my work, so I decided to stop doing it. I still have my blog; I started running a small blog on wordpress.com with updates and interesting links, so that anyone who's interested can subscribe to it via newsletter or RSS app. I write an update only once in a while when I change something on my main website or if I find something interesting. I deleted Instagram and Facebook (I changed there some settings though, to get some most important notifications to my mailbox), and Tumblr too (too much mindless scrolling).

I downloaded an RSS app instead (I chose Bulgarian Inoreader, but there're others). I follow news sites and blogs I like. It's a feed, but it's my feed, in a chronological order, without ads, sponsored content, algorithms and stupid or hateful comments. Just news and blog posts in a chronological order. I noticed I started to actually read articles! On social media apps it was so easy to read a title and go to the comment section immediately.

Podcasts and Music

I follow my favourite YouTube channels in the RSS app and I got rid of YouTube. I listen to my favourite podcasts in Swedish Spotify. We used to have a family plan in Spotify, but we use American Tidal for music now, because it's a little cheaper, there aren't so many YouTube-like podcasts that my son watched (and I don't want him to), and Tidal pays artists three times more than Spotify. Personally, I'd love to come back to having my mp3 files and playing my own music (I only listen to my own playlists anyway), but my family isn't on board. I'll try to buy my favourite songs to support artists a little and find a way to convert my CDs to digital files (I did it years ago, but I got rid of them...).

Films and TV shows

We had Netflix, Disney+, HBO and Prime at one point. Currently we only keep Netflix (where we have lots to watch) and Prime (my husband says it's cheap enough to keep; I'd just get rid of it if it were up to me). We may pay for i.e. HBO for a month when there's something we want to watch.

I love watching TV shows, so I don't want to give up streaming altogether.

Phone

I use an old iPhone. Android is controlled by Google and iPhone is the only Apple thing I use. Degoogled Android like Graphene OS or Dumbphones are too much for me (just like self-hosted cloud).

What Is Difficult To Get Rid Of

I keep Google Family Link and Microsoft Family Safety to have parental control over my children's computers and phones. My children keep using Microsoft Edge browser too because of that. It's less about time limits and mostly about blocking some websites (I want them only to use websites and download apps that I allow them to). I haven't find a better way yet.

[malcolm-reeds-pineapple]

Adding to this, maybe in the tags say how would you classify your fanfic writing method in terms of the D&D alignment chart? I’m cooking up a meme.

[th3-matr1x-1n-th3-mak1ng]

Canadian Labs of Superhuman and Meta, experiment s31l-l4N.

Name: Seillan Emblem.

Age: 17.

Meta: Matrix Meta Human.

Powers:

Controls electricity and travels through the Internet at the speed of light. Any hardware that connects to any form of electricity can be used as a travel method.

Able to glitch into systems as a foreign software entity.

Able to hack into multiple systems as long as they are connected to the satellite above.

Able to create hardware entities made entirely of things found in software form using Binary Code Evolution.

More to be added.

Subject wears a blindfold due to an accident that left his eyes intolerant to light. The blindfold helps to block light from subject's eyes.

Danger level: 10/10

Class: 6

Sanity: 50% and deteriorating.

Mental issues: appears to have split personalities. We have classified two of them and labelled as:

- Adria (calm and reformed. Appears when comfortable.)

- Isarel (cold, distant, rude and violent. Appears when in danger.)

Do not approach unless you are with an upper level scientist with clearance access.

This is an experiment:

Show the Matrix Meta the outside world through this software social media platform. Do not engage with violence or you will suffer extreme consequences. The Matrix is of the highest class. Proceed at your own risk. You have been warned.

OC X DC ACCOUNT

Mun is not comfortable with NSFW

Edit: scratch that. I'm fine. But like... He's a loyal guy, okay?

Call me Trixie

I'll add lore once I find time.

Seillan has a canon partner, named River Emblem.

Here are some EXTREMELY OLD art of River and Seillan because DAM I HAVEN'T UPDATED OR DREW THEM AT ALL 😭😭

Art

Oc details (may be updated)

It's just to get a feel of how he looks tbh

Except I nerfed his form a lot:

No tail, no wings, no halo, no horns. No FOREIGN BODY PARTS

He just has long ahh hair, about Arcane Jinx's length. He's a princess lmfao

Also River went from a demon born to a psychic, so he also lost his horns and such.

Seillan talking

Adria talking

Isarel talking

Tags:

Seillan speaks

Adria speaks

Isarel speaks

Matrix reboots (reblogs)

Emblem Post (posts)

Questionable questions (asks)

I now behind the screen watch everyone (ooc)

"lore" (lore)

EDIT GUYS I FINALLY DID IT

his Science report YAY

[classifiedscripts]

Are you trying to find free software to create classified websites? Learn about the limitations of using such a product and how a paid software can benefit you.

[businessadvisorrobert]

Why You Need an Online Classified Script for Your Startup

A part of the world looks at the second-hand market as economically sensible and environmentally friendly. However, this view differs in other parts of the world. 

After the technology evolution, places, where second-hand products are less in practice, have become regular practitioners. 

Currently, the second-hand market is in the booming phase with the technology assistance.  As the market opens endless opportunities and thriving potential resources, going with the online classified ads script is the best option. 

This article highlights why your business needs a classified market in all aspects. Let’s jump into the article and find insightful information. 

Market Value Of Online Classified Script

Classified markets have begun to compete with industries previously unimagined. Let's take a look at their growth figures!

This year, the digital ad market has reached $21.66 billion and is projected to grow to $23.85 billion by 2029, with an annual CAGR of 1.95%.

The number is interesting, right? Let’s see how you can take your business to this height.

Beneficial Factors To Look At In Online Classified Script Development  

Over time, it's crucial to find strategies that will drive you to the height of success. Let’s find out how you can find these elements in auto-classified scripts. Take a look at it! 

Expanding Your Audience Faster

In today's business landscape, having a strong online presence is essential, and a classified website script is a powerful tool for achieving this. With a solid online presence, you can attract a broad audience, including those in the global market. Success depends on understanding audience preferences and positioning your business as their top choice for shopping.

Online classified script business allows you to tap into a vast market, breaking through geographical boundaries. Global outreach is crucial in the current environment, enabling you to reach a large audience and boost productivity.

To reach this goal, you'll need robust features. The app offers support for multiple languages, currencies, geo-location, and more to effectively engage global users.

Cost-Effective Promotion Strategy

Many companies invest heavily in advertising to reach their audience. Traditionally, this involved relying on third parties, often requiring substantial financial outlays. However, the digital space offers a more affordable alternative through free promotional activities. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook allow you to advertise your business without any cost, making it a low-investment, high-return strategy.

These modern promotion methods are more advanced and effective than traditional approaches. Ever heard of built-in marketing? Features like reviews, ratings, comments, and shares naturally promote your business, creating an organic marketing effect.

For instance, if you are promoting your business with small businesses that offer items related to you, there is a high possibility that you can reach out to your audiences easily.   

To succeed, create a business image that resonates with your audience. This image is reflected in your logo, visuals, descriptions, and overall brand identity. Choose these elements carefully and implement them wisely!

Key Features of the User Panel

For an audience that's not tech-savvy, designing a user panel that makes navigating your platform a breeze is crucial. Here’s how you can achieve a seamless experience from start to finish:

   - Offer multiple login options so users can quickly sign up without hassle.

   - Implement advanced search features that help users easily find what they're looking for, like a car that meets their needs.

   -Once users have found their choice, make the booking process straightforward, with various payout options to choose from.

   - Ensure that the payment options are diverse and easy to use, so transactions are completed without any confusion.

   - The final step is receiving a confirmation, reassuring users that their order is successfully placed.

By incorporating these features, auto-classified scripts create an environment where users can shop effortlessly. Let’s dive into the tools that make this seamless experience possible!

Real-Time Notification And Inventory Management

The platform consistently keeps its inventory up-to-date, a critical task in the automotive industry. With the auto classified software, businesses can efficiently list their vehicles, ensuring that users always see the most current information.

The reason for maintaining real-time updates is to avoid advertising vehicles that have already been sold, which helps build trust between customers and sellers. This trust encourages repeat visits to the platform.

Notification enhances the platform’s user-friendliness by providing essential information without requiring users to open the app. Users can easily find the required updates of the platform via the notification option. Inventory management can complete tasks without hassle at a few tabs. The technology used in it creates a simple workflow. 

How can you uplift your business with these benefits? Let’s find out about its revenue factors! 

Monetization Tactics That Drive Business Results

Revenue is crucial for the long-term success of your business. Key income sources include commission fees, which are a major part of the platform’s earnings. Users and sellers can access the platform for free, while the platform makes money from transparent commission rates, boosting credibility. Another revenue stream is advertising, where allowing third-party ads on your platform generates passive income that helps with operational costs. Subscription fees are also important; users can opt for a quarterly plan, providing a steady revenue flow and simplifying payments. Additionally, in-app purchases offer users extra features for a fee, which can significantly boost revenue, though it’s important to use this strategy judiciously to avoid overwhelming users.

Bottom Line, 

In the digital landscape, to stand ahead in the market, uniqueness is key. How do you get the optimal traits for your business? 

First, you find the right team that has previous experience and is strong in the field. If you feel like moving to the next step, head to gathering all the necessary things like features, functionalities, technologies, and other factors. 

You can complete these processes simply without using your savvy insight. Read my blog on the development process of the online classified ad script.

[mariacallous]

Mass layoffs and weak leadership are taking a severe toll on the US government’s cyber defense agency, undermining its ability to protect America from foreign adversaries bent on crippling infrastructure and ransomware gangs that are bleeding small businesses dry.

Inside the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, vital support staff are gone, international partnerships have been strained, and workers are afraid to discuss threats to democracy that they’re now prohibited from countering. Employees are even more overworked than usual, and new assignments from the administration are interfering with important tasks. Meanwhile, CISA’s temporary leader is doing everything she can to appease President Donald Trump, infuriating employees who say she’s out of touch and refusing to protect them.

“You've got a lot of people who … are looking over their shoulder as opposed to looking at the enemy right now,” says one CISA employee.

As the Trump administration’s war on the federal bureaucracy throws key agencies into chaos, CISA’s turmoil could have underappreciated consequences for national security and economic prospects. The agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, has steadily built a reputation as a nonpartisan source of funding, guidance, and even direct defensive support for cities, businesses, and nonprofits reeling from cyberattacks. That mission is now under threat, according to interviews with seven CISA employees and another person familiar with the matter, all of whom requested anonymity to avoid reprisals.

“Our enemies are not slowing their continuous assaults on our systems,” says Suzanne Spaulding, who led CISA’s predecessor during the Obama administration. “We need all hands on deck and focused, not traumatized and distracted.”

Talent Exodus

CISA’s mission has grown significantly since its creation in 2018. Established mainly to defend government networks, the agency increasingly embraced new roles supporting private companies and state governments, advocating for secure software, and cooperating with foreign partners. This helped CISA raise its profile and gain credibility. But now, following several rounds of layoffs and new restrictions from the Trump administration, the agency is struggling to sustain its momentum.

The extent of the cuts at CISA is still unclear—employees are only learning about the loss of colleagues through word of mouth—but multiple employees estimate that, between the layoffs and the Office of Personnel Management’s deferred-resignation program, CISA has lost between 300 and 400 staffers—roughly 10 percent of its 3,200-person workforce. Many of those people were hired through DHS’s Cybersecurity Talent Management System (CTMS), a program designed to recruit experts by competing with private-sector salaries. As a result, they were classified as probationary employees for three years, making them vulnerable to layoffs. These layoffs at CISA also hit longtime government workers who had become probationary by transferring into CTMS roles.

Key employees who have left include Kelly Shaw, who oversaw one of CISA’s marquee programs, a voluntary threat-detection service for critical infrastructure operators; David Carroll, who led the Mission Engineering Division, the agency’s technological backbone; and Carroll’s technical director, Duncan McCaskill. “We've had a very large brain drain,” an employee says.

The departures have strained a workforce that was already stretched thin. “We were running into [a] critical skills shortage previously,” says a second employee. ��Most people are and have been doing the work of two or more full-time [staffers].”

The CISA team that helps critical infrastructure operators respond to hacks has been understaffed for years. The agency added support positions for that team after a Government Accountability Office audit, but “most of those people got terminated,” a third employee says.

CISA’s flagship programs have been mostly unscathed so far. That includes the threat-hunting branch, which analyzes threats, searches government networks for intruders, and responds to breaches. But some of the laid-off staffers provided crucial “backend” support for threat hunters and other analysts. “There's enhancements that could be made to the tools that they're using,” the first employee says. But with fewer people developing those improvements, “we're going to start having antiquated systems.”

In a statement, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin says CISA remains “committed to the safety and security of the nation’s critical infrastructure” and touted “the critical skills that CISA experts bring to the fight every day.”

National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt says the reporting in this story is “nonsense,” adding that “there have been no widespread layoffs at CISA and its mission remains fully intact.”

“We continue to strengthen cybersecurity partnerships, advance AI and open-source security, and protect election integrity,” Hewitt says. “Under President Trump’s leadership, our administration will make significant strides in enhancing national cybersecurity.”

Partnership Problems

CISA’s external partnerships—the cornerstone of its effort to understand and counter evolving threats—have been especially hard-hit.

International travel has been frozen, two employees say, with trips—and even online communications with foreign partners—requiring high-level approvals. That has hampered CISA’s collaboration with other cyber agencies, including those of “Five Eyes” allies Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, staffers say.

CISA employees can’t even communicate with people at other federal agencies the way they used to. Previously routine conversations between CISA staffers and high-level officials elsewhere now need special permissions, slowing down important work. “I can’t reach out to a CISO about an emergency situation without approval,” a fourth employee says.

Meanwhile, companies have expressed fears about sharing information with CISA and even using the agency’s free attack-monitoring services due to DOGE’s ransacking of agency computers, according to two employees. “There is advanced concern about all of our services that collect sensitive data,” the third employee says. “Partners [are] asking questions about what DOGE can get access to and expressing concern that their sensitive information is in their hands.”

“The wrecking of preestablished relationships will be something that will have long-lasting effects,” the fourth employee says.

CISA’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, a high-profile hub of government-industry cooperation, is also struggling. The JCDC currently works with more than 300 private companies to exchange threat information, draft defensive playbooks, discuss geopolitical challenges, and publish advisories. The unit wants to add hundreds more partners, but it has “had difficulty scaling this,” the first employee says, and recent layoffs have only made things worse. Contractors might be able to help, but the JCDC’s “vendor support contracts run out in less than a year,” the employee says, and as processes across the government have been frozen or paused in recent weeks, CISA doesn’t know if it can pursue new agreements. The JCDC doesn't have enough federal workers to pick up the slack, the fourth CISA employee says.

With fewer staffers to manage its relationships, the JCDC confronts a perilous question: How should it focus its resources without jeopardizing important visibility into the threat landscape? Emphasizing ties with major companies might be more economical, but that would risk overlooking mid-sized firms whose technology is quietly essential to vital US industries.

“CISA continuously evaluates how it works with partners,” McLaughlin says, “and has taken decisive action to maximize impact while being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and aligning with Administration priorities and our authorities.”

Gutting Security Advocacy

Other parts of CISA’s mission have also begun to atrophy.

During the Biden administration, CISA vowed to help the tech industry understand and mitigate the risks of open-source software, which is often poorly maintained and has repeatedly been exploited by hackers. But since Trump took office, CISA has lost the three technical luminaries who oversaw that work: Jack Cable, Aeva Black, and Tim Pepper. Open-source security remains a major challenge, but CISA’s efforts to address that challenge are now rudderless.

The new administration has also frozen CISA’s work on artificial intelligence. The agency had been researching ways to use AI for vulnerability detection and networking monitoring, as well as partnering with the private sector to study AI risks. “About 50 percent of [CISA’s] AI expert headcount has been let go,” says a person familiar with the matter, which is “severely limiting” CISA’s ability to help the US Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute test AI models before deployment.

The administration also pushed out CISA’s chief AI officer, Lisa Einstein, and closed down her office, the person familiar with the matter says. Einstein’s team oversaw CISA’s use of AI and worked with private companies and foreign governments on AI security.

A large team of DHS and CISA AI staffers was set to accompany Vice President JD Vance to Paris in February for an AI summit, but those experts “were all pulled back” from attending, according to a person familiar with the matter.

‘Nefarious’ Retribution

CISA staffers are still reeling from the agency’s suspension of its election security program and the layoffs of most people who worked on that mission. The election security initiative, through which CISA provided free services and guidance to state and local officials and worked with tech companies to track online misinformation, became a target of right-wing conspiracy theories in 2020, which marked it for death after Trump’s return to the White House.

The program—on hold pending CISA’s review of a recently completed internal assessment—was a tiny part of CISA’s budget and operations, but the campaign against it has alarmed agency employees. “This is definitely in the freak-out zone,” says the first employee, who adds that CISA staffers across the political spectrum support the agency’s efforts to track online misinformation campaigns. “All of us recognize that this is a common deception tactic of the enemy.”

The election security purge rippled across the agency, because some of the laid-off staffers had moved from elections to other assignments or were simultaneously working on both missions. Geoff Hale, who led the elections team between 2018 and 2024, was serving as the chief of partnerships at the JCDC when he was placed on administrative leave, setting off a scramble to replace him.

The removal of Hale and his colleagues “was the start to a decline in morale” at CISA, according to the second employee. Now, staffers are afraid to discuss certain topics in public forums: “No one's going to talk about election security right now,” the first employee says.

“The fact that there’s retribution from the president … is kind of frightening,” this employee adds. “A very nefarious place to be.”

Abandoned and Demoralized

The layoffs, operational changes, and other disruptions at CISA have severely depleted morale and undermined the agency’s effectiveness. “Even simple tasks feel hard to accomplish because you don't know if your teammates won't be here tomorrow,” says the fourth employee.

The biggest source of stress and frustration is acting CISA director Bridget Bean, a former Trump appointee who, employees say, appears eager to please the president even if it means not defending her agency. Bean “just takes whatever comes down and implements [it] without thought of how it will affect [CISA’s] mission,” the fifth employee says. Employees describe her as a poor leader and ineffective communicator who has zealously enacted Trump’s agenda. In town-hall meetings with employees, Bean has said CISA must carefully review its its authorities and urged staffers to “assume noble intent” when dealing with Trump officials. While discussing Elon Musk’s mass-buyout program, she allegedly said, “I like to say ‘Fork in the Road’ because it's kind of fun,.” according to the fourth employee. She was so eager to comply with Musk’s “What did you do last week?” email that she instructed staffers to respond to it before DHS had finalized its department-wide approach. DHS later told staff not to respond, and Bean had to walk back her directive.

“Bean feels like she's against the workforce just to please the current administration,” the second employee says. The fourth employee describes her as “not authentic, tone-deaf, spineless, [and] devoid of leadership.”

McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, says CISA “is not interested in ad hominem attacks against its leadership,” which she says “has doubled down on openness and transparency with the workforce.”

The return-to-office mandate has also caused problems. With all employees on-site, there isn’t enough room in CISA’s offices for the contractors who support the agency’s staff. That has made it “very difficult” to collaborate on projects and hold technical discussions, according to the first employee. “There wasn’t much thought about [RTO’s] impact to operations,” says the fourth employee. According to a fifth employee, “executing some of our sensitive operations is now harder.” (“CISA has worked tirelessly to make the return to office as smooth as possible from space to technology,” McLaughlin says.)

Employees are dealing with other stressors, too. They have no idea who’s reading their Musk-mandated performance reports, how they’re being evaluated, or whether AI is analyzing them for future layoffs. And there’s a lot of new paperwork. “The amount of extra shit we have to do to comply with the ‘efficiency measures’ … [takes] a lot of time away from doing our job,” says the fifth employee.

Bracing for More

When Trump signed the bill creating CISA in November 2018, he said the agency’s workforce would be “on the front lines of our cyber defense” and “make us, I think, much more effective.” Six and a half years later, many CISA employees see Trump as the biggest thing holding them back.

“This administration has declared psychological warfare on this workforce,” the fourth employee says.

With CISA drawing up plans for even larger cuts, staffers know the chaos is far from over.

“A lot of people are scared,” says the first employee. “We’re waiting for that other shoe to drop. We don't know what's coming.”

Entire wings of CISA—like National Risk Management Center and the Stakeholder Engagement Division—could be on the chopping block. Even in offices that survive, some of the government’s most talented cyber experts—people who chose public service over huge sums of money and craved the lifestyle of CISA’s now-eliminated remote-work environment—are starting to see their employment calculus differently. Some of them will likely leave for stabler jobs, further jeopardizing CISA’s mission. “What is the organization going to be capable of doing in the future?” the first employee asks.

If Trump’s confrontational foreign-policy strategy escalates tensions with Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea, it’s likely those nations could step up their use of cyberattacks to exact revenge. In that environment, warns Nitin Natarajan, CISA’s deputy director during the Biden administration, weakening the agency could prove very dangerous.

“Cuts to CISA’s cyber mission,” Natarajan says, “will only negatively impact our ability to not only protect federal government networks, but those around the nation that Americans depend on every day.”

[peskellence]

Pairing: RK900/Gavin Reed

Tags: Post Pacifist Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Smut, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Masterlist

Read on AO3 here:

Summary: A lot has changed since the revolution. Crimes against androids are now being treated with greater severity, with many being subject to the same penalties as crimes against humans. While anti-android attitudes are on the decline, transforming the mindset of an entire city is no simple task.

A reluctant Gavin Reed and his new partner RK900 have been assigned to investigate a string of disturbing murders. Despite the shift in Detroit's social climate, Gavin still holds reservations about whether or not androids are truly alive. Will his developing feelings for 'Nines' prompt a shift in perspective?

Warnings: Graphic Violence, Depression/Self Destructive Behaviour, Smut

Word Count: 3.8K

With the report of the events that had taken place received by the higher DPD officials, Nines' behaviour had been formally classified. Gavin caught a glimpse of it on Fowler’s monitor when he was called in to make his statement: 

Employee Classification: Android.

Model: RK900.

Incident Type: Software Malfunction - Moderate. 

Suggested Action(s): Performance Review.

Given the gravity of what had occurred, it seemed a massive understatement, and unfairly dismissive. A sign that the system had not fully reformed its treatment of android employees, with language that harkened back to pre-revolution days. 

At the very least, the captain seemed to agree that the official ruling was somewhat short-sighted, acting swiftly in ordering a welfare check. Had Nines been human, the situation would likely be received with a much greater degree of compassion. His actions in the lead-up to Gavin's assault comparable to a psychological breakdown. 

Gavin felt close to one himself, staring through his sleep-deprived haze at the vacant chair at the end of his desk. A gentle voice broke through to him as a hand rested reassuringly on his shoulder. "Gav, you shouldn't be here right now. I can see how tired you are."

Tina had graciously allowed him to spend the night at hers. The gesture had been appreciated, as the thought of going home alone after what had happened had proved unbearable. Despite the security her presence provided, he'd not been able to sleep. Closed eyes conjured nothing but images of Nines' face. A frantic, disordered sequence of disturbed mania, detached vacancy, and fearful anguish. Replaying endlessly in his mind like a twisted slideshow.

"Why don't you go and see Fowler? Get him to sign you off for the rest of the day," Tina thoughtfully suggested. "You were injured on duty, after all." 

As Gavin continued to ruminate, his head pulsed with the twin rhythms of a steady migraine and the wound carved into the back. He cupped it gently, and it burned at the contact—another nagging reminder of the previous day's events. Glancing up at the station clock, he glowered grimly at the time shown:

"Twenty-four hours. It's been twenty-four hours since we last saw him."

Tina seemed more than a little perturbed but persisted in her attempts to lift her friend's spirits. "Tell you what. I’ll give you my keys. Head back to mine, and you can borrow my slanket." She gave his shoulder a firm nudge but with no actual weight behind it. "I swear I won't even be mad if you eat the rest of my pizza. As long as you promise to get some rest." 

"I won't be able to rest" Gavin balled hands into his dishevelled hair, dangerously close to pulling out in large clumps. "Not until they find him."

"Hey, have some faith in your colleagues.You've got Detroit's Okayest Officers on this."

Gavin didn't laugh at the joke, causing Tina's smile to falter. With added severity, she leaned closer, hugging herself to the back of his chair but stopping shy of an actual embrace. The detective had never been the cuddly sort, of which she was acutely aware. "No one is going to stop looking, not until we've found him—but you torturing yourself like this won't change anything." 

"I can't fucking help it, I just keep thinking."

"Well, there's your problem."

"I keep thinking—" he persisted, shooting her an sour look. "What if he doesn't come back?"

Tina seemed to take a moment to consider the possibility before shaking her head in reassurance. "Nines doesn't seem like the reckless type. I doubt he's skipped town or anything." 

"He wasn't acting like himself. Who the Hell knows what he might do?" His head drooped limply over his desk as he lost all energy to hold it upright. "He said he'd been 'compromised'. What does that mean?"

"I don't know, that seems like an android-coded question." 

"But it can't be good, right?"

"I could ask Jasmine?" Tina suggested, in an apparent attempt to be constructive. "She's my friend at Reception. The ST300."

Gavin was less than amenable to the suggestion. "The one you hooked up with at the Christmas party? This is serious.”

"Hey, I never said that we hooked up. I said that I don't kiss and tell," Tina held up her hands defensively. "and I am being serious. All I'm saying is that maybe 'compromised' is not as bad as it sounds." 

"He rebooted, Ti. How is that not bad?"

"Could be quite normal for androids?" she suggested optimistically. "He'd just had a big emotional shock, what with the other RK900. Maybe it was just a blip." 

While Gavin knew the comment had been well-intentioned, he couldn't help but bristle at the wording. "It wasn't a blip. It had been going on for hours. It was like he was slowly breaking down from the moment he got that dispatch call."

Realising that her friend seemed determined to deflect any and all attempts at reassurance, Tina finally relented. She gave Gavin's shoulder one final, reassuring squeeze before slowly pulling away. 

"If you really don't want to rest, at the very least, let me get you a coffee." Turning towards the canteen, she gave him a parting glance over the shoulder, and gestured with her head towards his workstation. "Wait here, okay?"

In her absence, Gavin continued to rack his brains for any details that may prove significant in locating his partner. Consideration was made for every agonising word he'd uttered, trying to determine if they held any answers. 

Tina may have been correct in her suggestion that this was an android-specific issue. Consulting an android officer was likely his best bet, but it would need to be someone who knew Nines, at least on a rudimentary level. Enough to know where he might retreat in a time of psychological crisis. 

Wait. Gavin shot up, cursing his exhausted mind for not determining the answer sooner. Connor. That little rat.

His partner's predecessor clearly knew more than he was letting on, made evident by the warning he had imparted to Gavin just a couple of days prior:

"Nines mustn't experience any undue emotional stress. I ask that you not push him too much." 

Gavin stormed through the precinct, a newfound target in mind. Rage was building fast, coiling in his stomach like a hissing viper. He found the android by his usual station, at the desk conjoining Anderson's. He was pacing about aimlessly, head dipped and LED signalling a marked level of distress. The detective felt no empathy for this, proceeding undeterred in his heated march.

"You", he hissed viciously, levying a pointed finger at his coworker. 

Connor was startled from his dissociative state and looked up with panicked eyes to see who had addressed him. Locking onto the detective, his troubled expression became more frenzied. He dashed forward, grabbing the man firmly by the forearms. 

"Gavin, please tell me you've heard from him", he babbled. "I have tried to make contact several times, but he has blocked our communication channel. He has never done this before, I'm—" 

Gavin lunged forward, snarling, as he balled his hands into the front of his shirt. He shoved the android back, propelling him into a nearby wall and pinning him against it. The android made no attempt to break his hold, appearing too shocked to do so.

"You knew this would happen." He pulled Connor forward before slamming him back, watching as his head ricocheted against the sturdy surface. "And you fucked me around, letting me think it was jealousy. You didn't tell me that 'pushing' Nines would blow a fuse in his fucking brain."

Connor seemed to recover some of his lost composure in the wake of the heightened stakes. He tightened his grip on Gavin’s arms in a defensive gesture. "I am sorry. I wanted to say more, but he wouldn’t have liked me to." 

"Well, he isn't here." He pulled Connor back again before letting go, resulting in another slam. "So start talking. Right now. Or I swear I'll finish what we started in that Archive Room."

A flash of recollection crossed the android's eyes at the events the man was referring to. There was a subtle twitch of his lips, like the ghost of a smug smile, before it disappeared.

"I didn't think there would be another RK900. If I'd ever known there would ever be a situation where he would have—to be reminded of—" The android stalled, his mouth twitching unnaturally as he wrestled to get his words out. "He never wanted to be here, this job. I was the one who suggested he put himself forward. I thought it would be good for him."

The aimless ramblings rewarded him with a sharp smack across the face. The android's head snapped back with inhuman fluidity, bringing attention to how utterly pointless the action had been. There was no sense in striking someone who was incapable of feeling pain. Still, Gavin was willing to try, unable to see sense through the blinding mist of rage.

"Nines has seen plenty of mangled androids. I know it doesn’t make a difference to you, seeing your face. You don't think about it the same way we do. So what the fuck made this one so special?" 

Connor paused again, looking increasingly uncomfortable. His grip tightened further as he finally appeared ready to push Gavin away. "I need Hank. Let me find him." 

"Oh no, you're not calling on Anderson to come and bail you out." Gavin increased the pressure until their bodies were almost entirely flush. The pressure crushed against his chest, and his words came hissed through laboured breaths. "Did he know him? The RK900? Is that why he was so fucked up?"

"He didn't know him. He couldn't have." 

"How can you be so sure?" 

Connor stared fixedly ahead with a look that was both hollow and stricken. His voice, barely audible, trembled softly as he posed a chilling query. "Have you ever met another RK900? Had you ever even seen one before yesterday?" 

The question landed like a blow, leaving Gavin stunned. "No." 

"There's a reason for that." The gentle tremble in his voice persisted, his pale face blanketed by a flickering red. "Nines didn't know there were others, neither did I." 

"That doesn't make any sense. He's not a unique model; there will be thousands of others!" 

"Other models remain…intact…but they are dormant. Locked in warehouses across Detroit." 

The words ignited something in the recesses of Gavin's unfurling mind. Biting words that had been levied at Nines by the old man outside of Mikey’s Electronics. The comment he had made on his face. He had seen a warehouse on the news, filled with androids sharing that face. 

His simmering anger hastily spread into a raging inferno. The thought that Nines, his Nines, could have been abandoned in some warehouse. Left to remain forever dormant and ultimately forgotten. "So why don't they go and get them? Your friend, the one from the Revolution." 

"Markus."

"Yeah, him and the rest of his buddies. Why would they just leave them there?" The words were heavy with accusation as disgust curdled in his stomach. "Seems like they’ve saved every bastard else." 

"They can't, Gavin."

"Why not?"

"They tried before...once." There was a weighty pause that broke the sentence. One that did nothing to quell Gavin’s unfurling nerves. "They can't go back for the others. The risk is too high."

"What could be so bad that they're willing to leave them to rust?"

Connor fell silent again as though caught in the grip of some deep-repressed trauma. His haunted eyes told the story of some terrible, abhorrent reality that was entirely beyond articulation. 

"Jesus, what happened…?" The muttered question tapered off as his grip on the captive android slackened. 

With the freedom to move once more, Connor subtly readjusted his skewed tie. "We need to get through to Nines", he stressed. "Our connection permits me to track his movements, but with his channels closed off, it only allows for a limited range. He has gone somewhere he knows I can't see." 

“I shouldn't have gotten angry." Gavin cursed under his breath, too drained to suppress the forlorn lament. "I'm so fucking stupid."

There was no doubt that grabbing Nines had been the tipping point. The action that broke his partner’s resolve. If something terrible, potentially irreversible, had happened to him, it would be his own fault. 

There was no sense wallowing in hypotheticals, however. Gavin knew he needed to stay strong if he hoped to bring his partner back to him.

"This tracker: When you say 'limited range', how far does it spread?"

"Approximately 500 feet."

He snorted contemptuously at the underwhelming figure. "What fucking use is that? That doesn't even reach my—" His words trailed off abruptly as a rogue speculation ensnared his mind. "Oh shit. I think I know where he is."

Gavin charged forward, out of the station, and into the torrential downpour outside. His body felt weak with aches of exhaustion, but his mind remained focused. Arriving outside his apartment complex, he dashed past the broken elevator and towards a winding metal staircase, heading for the fourth floor.

Numb hands fumbled wildly inside his pockets until they found his keys. His grip was inhibited as he helplessly dithered to turn the lock, and when it finally clicked free, he slammed the door open with such ferocity that it dented the wall. 

Upon realisation that the action may have compromised his security deposit, he shut the door and made a note to assess the damage later. There were more pressing matters at hand.  

"Nines?"

He was greeted by silence, as his frantic eyes darted across the empty living room. Ignoring the now searing pain that permeated his legs, he took off for the bedroom and peered inside. Empty.

The bathroom was next, which really should have been the first point of call. If Nines was in the apartment, then there was only one place that he'd realistically want to be. Upon stepping into the room, he found it filled with its usual occupants. The kittens were snuggled against their mother, as gentle purrs echoed out. There was no one else that accompanied them.

Having lost the will to continue his search, Gavin conceded to the weight of his exhaustion, and sank weakly to his knees. Frustration stung his eyes, and he pushed it back with the heel of his palm. 

He's not here. 

Why would he be? 

Then he heard a noise—a distant shuffle, coming from his kitchen. As his hope rekindled, he pulled himself up and hurriedly marched toward the sound. 

The android stood at one of the counters, his back turned towards him:

"You keep a spare key under your mat", he said plainly. "That is hardly a secure practice. Had I realised sooner, I could have avoided my excursion up your fire escape." 

"Nines." The name was ripped from his lips as a pained gasp. “Holy shit, where have you been? Everyone's been worried sick."

"I have been here for quite some time." Nines continued to busy himself with some unseen task, not bothering to glance up. "I apologise if my presence is unwelcome. I could hear Tiffany crying from outside, and I was concerned for her wellbeing."

The android turned, revealing a replenished pet bowl in his hand. As he zoned in on his partner, a newfound concern etched his face. 

"You're drenched."

Gavin looked down at the damp material that clung uncomfortably to his body. "Well, yeah, I would be. It's a monsoon outside."

"Your body temperature is low, and your immune response at risk of becoming compromised." The worry was delivered with measured formality as he completed a scan of his partner's vitals. "I suggest you change immediately." 

"What happened yesterday?" Gavin demanded, swiftly deflecting the concerns. "Are you okay?"

Nines' lips tightened into a tense line. He looked to the bowl before placing it down in subdued resignation. "My systems have stabilised. For now. I believe this state is tenuous; I have no idea how long it will last."

"Oh my God, can you just give me a straight answer for once?" The detective's mouth pulled into a joyless sneer as he barked out a sharp laugh. "I don't know how much more I can take of this fucking mystery act."

"It is a matter that needn’t concern you. Now, or ever again. I am leaving the DPD." 

Gavin's laboured breathing stilled as he stared his partner down in cold accusation. "...Nines, this is a really shitty time to start cracking jokes." 

The android stared back, his grey eyes steady and resolute. Betraying no hint of hyperbole or exaggeration. 

"You can’t be serious." There was an uncomfortable feeling of tightness that gripped his neck. "They can't fire you. We're in the middle of an investigation. We're so close." 

"My departure would be by my own choice," Nines swiftly clarified. "I have realised that my presence at the precinct may be putting others at undue risk."

"Since when are you putting anyone at risk?"

The stern facade crumbled, revealing all the harboured sentiment hidden behind Nines' detached words. "I hurt you. I cannot allow something like that to happen again."

"So what? You're not the first person to fuck up like that. Just today, I roughed up Connor, thinking he'd know where you were."

Nines' crestfallen expression tapered, morphing into a look of surprise, followed shortly by exasperation. Gavin, becoming aware of his mistake, tried to mitigate. 

"I mean, not 'roughed up' roughed up. I pinned him to a wall and smacked him around a bit." Gavin winced at his own clumsy wording, realising the myriad of ways the statement could be misinterpreted. “He's fine. The point is, you lost your temper. I do that all the time. I'm not going to hold it against you."

"This is different", Nines explained, his voice filled with a palpable turmoil. "It is not simply a case of losing my temper. I am dangerous. Unstable." 

Gavin dismissed the notion with a harsh snort. "Oh, come on. You might make out like you're some big scary Terminator, but I've seen the other side of you. I know you're more than that." 

"Am I? How could you possibly know when I have no idea?"

The room echoed with the lingering boom of Nines' impassioned words before a tense hush settled.

"...You have no idea what I was designed to be. The sort of monster I am." 

"Who gives a shit what you were designed to be?" Gavin hissed back, "Remember what you said before? About self-improvement? Maybe you should apply some of that to yourself." 

"I cannot change. I am bound to my programme."

"Bullshit. We wouldn't be having this conversation if you were just a machine." 

"Can never be enough—A fool to think otherwise—" His sentences became clipped, echoing the previous day's pattern. 

Panic gripped Gavin as he felt a urgent need to snap Nines out of his volatile state. "Look, I don't know what's making you talk like that. God knows your brother wasn't willing to tell me—but I do know a thing or two about not feeling like you're enough."

He had succeeded in his attempt to break through. The android's eyes widened in alarm, as he seemed to realise the man's intentions. "You don't need to do this."

"Well, I want to. So shut up and listen." With a shaky breath through clenched teeth, Gavin steeled himself to continue. "My whole life, it always felt like my dad was the only person who ever believed in me, and after he died, I tried so fucking hard to change that." 

His voice was thick and strained. He paused, taking a moment to compose himself. 

"Just before we met, I was at the point of giving up. I don't know what finally did it, maybe it was my shithead boyfriend leaving. Or maybe I just realised that nothing I do will ever be good enough—because no matter what, I'll always be living in his shadow." 

"Elijah Kamski."

Gavin gaped back in surprise, wondering how long Nines had known—or if he'd always known.

"To feel so inferior, like a part of yourself is fundamentally lacking." Nines’ eyes gleamed with empathy as his lips pulled into a comforting smile. "I've only known such emotions for a couple of months. I can't imagine how torturous it must have been. To have felt that way for so long."

"It’s not been great, I'll tell you that," Gavin replied with an embittered chuckle. "I don't know what happened to you, Nines, and we don't have to talk about it. Just know I want to help." 

Tears welled in the corners of Nines' eyes, on the brink of overflowing. "You're a good man, Gavin. Much more than you give yourself credit for," A deft hand brushed away the traces as he quickly straightened his posture, "but I am beyond help." 

Gavin was engulfed by an overwhelming sense of defeat—like the walls were closing in, steadily crushing him. 

"I will contact Captain Fowler and request that RK800 and Lieutenant Anderson assist you with the remainder of our case. It is for the best if we have no further involvement."

"So that's it, then?" He spat out the words, feeling a sickening burn rise in his throat. "We're done? Back to being strangers like nothing happened?"

"I am sorry. Truly, I am. When we became partners, I never expected to be feeling the way I am now." 

In an instant, Gavin understood. The way Nines’ intense gaze softened in a way that seemed reserved entirely for him. As though he were something he treasured deeply, with nothing else in the world holding the same significance. 

"What do you feel?"

Nines averted his eyes, and it only confirmed what he already knew. The answer was clear, but he pressed nonetheless.

"Just say it. Don't be a fucking coward." 

"It's too much," Nines lamented, his voice trembling with ill-suppressed anguish. "All of it—more than I can bear."

"You can’t do this to me." 

"To know you, the real you, has been a privilege." There was no attempt to hide the tears this time as they cascaded down his face. "Take good care of the cats." 

"Don't—" Gavin grasped his arm, attempting to halt his departure, but Nines effortlessly broke free. As the android moved away, he considered grabbing him again, but he knew it would be pointless. However, this did not stop him from pursuing as he followed obstinately out of the kitchen. 

"You didn't give up on me, and I sure as Hell am not giving up on you." The promise fell on deaf ears, and his desperation escalated. 

"...I'll wait." 

The android halted, seemingly out of shock, casting a hesitant glance back.

"I mean shit, how can you expect me to go back now, knowing what I could have had?" His choked words broke into pained laughs, as he gently shook his head. "I don't have forever like you. I'll get old, and I'll die, and I'll still be waiting. You want that on your conscience?" 

"No. It would be a terrible waste of life. One that I implore you to reconsider" Nines opened the door and stepped through, appearing determined to move forward. Not willing to risk that he might change his mind. "Goodbye, Gavin." 

[beardedmrbean]

Why did it take so long for an ambulance to reach a family’s home in Karjalohja after receiving an emergency call about their six-month-old baby, Liam, who was unresponsive when his father tried to wake him from a nap?

On Boxing Day, the healthy baby boy suddenly stopped breathing, and help did not reach him in time. It took 35 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, and the fact that Liam's case was classified as non-urgent contributed to the paramedics' lengthy response time, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

"In the emergency call, we said that we found Liam unresponsive. Only later were we told that if a person is found unresponsive, help is not sent urgently. If we had worded it differently, perhaps said that the child had stopped breathing, help would have arrived," said the mother, who blames herself for saying the wrong term on the phone at a crucial moment.

According to the parents, the paramedics immediately determined that there was no heartbeat. They did not continue resuscitation. There was no doctor on site.

From screens to scripture

Studies have shown that Finland's youth are increasingly irreligious, but fresh figures from Finland's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Helsinki suggest a different trend, Hufvudstadsbladet reports.

Last year, more new members joined the Lutheran church than at any other time since 2000.

Young Helsinki residents are showing a growing interest in religion. According to recent membership statistics from the church in Helsinki, the number of confirmed increased in 2024 for the second year in a row.

But more 13–15-year-olds are also registering with the church. Compared to the years before the pandemic, the number of newly registered teenagers in this age group has now doubled. Among them, more boys than girls are joining congregations.

Last year, a total of 2,170 Helsinki residents joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church — 300 more than the previous year and representing the highest number of registrations in the 21st century. However, 6,089 people left the church in 2024.

Nordnet problems

Kauppalehti follows up on Nordnet's service outage this week, which resulted in some users' details being visible to others.

The online broker says that during the technical problems it experienced, the company found only one unauthorised transaction across the entire Nordic region.

Nordnet's Country Manager for Finland, Suvi Tuppurainen, told KL that the unauthorised transaction involved a Finnish customer, whose stocks were sold for approximately 7,400 euros.

According to Tuppurainen, the transaction was reversed and the shares were returned to the customer. There were no tax implications, she added.

Nordnet has said that the login issues were caused by a malfunctioning software component but that the root cause is still being investigated.

[audio-luddite]

I was talking with a guy.

Hey if I am mentioning it here it was about audio.

The question was how to get started in serious audio (lets not call it audiophile yet). It is a remarkably simple and yet complex question. Spend lots of money?

So to start, the front end is the tricky bit. That is source and control. Source is what you are listening too. Control is selection of source, if you have more than one, and basic volume control. In most systems control is the preamplifier.

The back end is the speakers and power amplifier. Actually really simple. What fits in your home and how much can you afford. Easy to change if you want.

The first big issue is source. By that I mean hard copied media or virtual. The first is category is CDs and their ilk such as SACD etc, and of course Vinyl LPs. The second is streaming online.

The second one first. (interesting sentence that but perfectly correct)

Streaming is far from simple. It has the least initial cost for the media as it is just a subscription fee (forever). It has an enormous even overwhelming variety and quantity of content. It also is only permission to use the content, but you do not own it. You can have a huge "collection" but it is virtual. Also there is a controversy about payments to artists.

Often not said is that almost all the streaming services are at or below CD quality. CD quality is not considered truly great by the tribes. That is all I am going to say about that right now.

The hardware is not simple for high end streaming. In very general terms you need a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter), a box to buffer or hold the downloaded files, and a computer to do the downloads and host the streaming service software. That is three boxes. In high end they are all expensive of course.

There are devices that do all three things, but they are not cheap. They also do not have the quality of the "best" systems.

Audiophiles like dedicated computers and streaming servers and DACs of eye watering expense.

In summary the streaming front end is very expensive. In my looking about for adding that to my system it is thousands of dollars. Conservatively about $5000 for my quality goal. Emphasis on that is only the front end.

Now to my thesis.

I say the least cost path to high end sound is with vinyl. WTF?! A high end capable Turntable starts at hundreds of dollars. Much more can be spent, but in today's local classified ads there are dozens under $500 and a few very good ones up to $1000. An older model refurbished unit is perfectly fine for the job. And I mean high end sound extraction. Brands such as Technics, Rega, Thorens, Micro Seki, Kenwood, Pioneer are good candidates.

A high end phonograph pickup or cartridge can be had for under $500 bucks. I have three all around $400 ish or less. I like Grado, and Audio Technica. There are more, but I don't have any of those. Moving coils need not apply. Those are euphonic, which is they add seductive sounds that are not in the source material.

That is the whole vinyl source hardware list. Under $1400 bucks or less and you are up and running. The only caveat is your control preamp needs to have a phono input which most old ones do.

In my case have a high end hybrid tube FET preamp that can be had for $2000 or less depending on the phase of the moon. You need that anyway. My opinion is the preamp is the major contributor to the overall performance of your system.

So that brings the full front end to less than $3400 for a high end system. If you take into account all my extra phono cartridges I still spent less than that. Just.

There is an intriguing option in a high end integrated amplifier from Technics (SU-G700) that is a preamp and DAC and very good class D amplifier with a phono input for about $2400 USD. Just add speakers and turntable and you are over the threshold to high end. It is rather spooky. If I had to start from scratch I would be tempted. Far less than an ARC suite. I could no longer claim I was a Luddite though.

Yes with vinyl you still have to buy LPs, unless you are an old fart like me and have hundreds, but it is actually rather fun. Compared to the initial cost of a high end streaming system the cost of an extensive LP library looks reasonable. I search for high quality boutique stuff usually, but I also find stuff in the racks. Garage sales anyone?

I have high end sound in my home. I dare say it is the best sounding system I have every heard. Vinyl is not a compromise. There is a lot to be said for getting up to flip a record every 20 minutes. Hell I have a watch that nags me to get up and move if I stay seated for more than an hour. (yes I am a geek) It's good for you Mr couch potato.

Obviously to play at this game money will be spent. You can start off modestly and build over time (decades in my case) or jump in. In the end you will have a sonic place to spend time appreciating art at the highest level.

Interesting that I really cannot afford to add high end streaming to my system. I don't need to.

[milfstalin]

Algeria announced on Thursday it will reestablish visa requirements for Moroccan nationals effective immediately, accusing its North African neighbour of deploying "Zionist intelligence agents".

In a statement, the Algerian foreign ministry accused Morocco of taking advantage of the visa exemption arrangement to "engage in various actions detrimental to the stability of Algeria and its national security".

The ministry cited: "The large-scale organisation of organised crime networks, drug and human trafficking, smuggling, illegal immigration and acts of espionage, as well as the deployment of Zionist intelligence agents, holders of Moroccan passports, to freely access the national territory."

"These acts constitute a direct threat to the national security of our country and impose firm and strict control of all points of access and stay in the national territory," the statement added.

[...]

In August 2021, Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco, accusing its neighbour of "hostile acts".

Notably, it is alleged that Rabat was linked to the deadly fires that ravaged its territory, which Algerian authorities blamed on the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), an independence organisation in the northern Amazigh-speaking region that they classify as terrorist.

At the time, the head of Algerian diplomacy also accused Morocco of spying on Algerian officials with the Israeli Pegasus software and failing in its bilateral obligations, including in regards to the Western Sahara, where Algiers supports the Polisario Front, an independence movement.

Morocco had deemed the decision to sever ties "completely unjustified", rejecting "the fallacious, even absurd, pretexts that underlie it".

Subsequently, Algiers terminated the contract for the supply of natural gas to Morocco through the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline and closed the airspace to Moroccan planes.

"In addition to the traditional disputes that exist between the two states, whereby Algeria accuses Morocco of using the common borders to smuggle drugs, engage in smuggling and illegal emigration, Algeria is bothered by the presence of Israel on its borders. The authorities fear actions of internal destabilisation. Hence this extreme reaction," Boukhlef told MEE.

In 2020, when the normalisation of relations between Morocco and Israel was announced in exchange for Washington's recognition of Rabat's sovereignty over Western Sahara, Algiers denounced the "arrival of the Zionist entity at [its] doorstep" and "foreign operations aimed at destabilising Algeria".

[...]

27 Sept 2024