Port the code to PHP 8.5.

Replace the short open tags and the removed functions (mcrypt, mysql_error,
salt-less crypt). Decode the reCAPTCHA reply as JSON, turn off mysqli
exceptions, drop stripslashes(), and default missing input values.
Fix the misplaced continue in prune_images().

publish/choose.inc.php

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<?
+<?php
 // Default to the queue.
 if (!isset($_REQUEST['queue']))
   $queue = TRUE;
@@ -12,15 +12,15 @@ if (!get_id() && (get_count() > 1))
 if ($queue) { ?>
 
 <p>To view already-posted articles, <a href="edit?queue=0">click here</a>.</p>
-<?  } else { ?>
+<?php  } else { ?>
 <p>To view articles in the queue, <a href="edit?queue=1">click here</a>.</p>
 <div class="input" style="text-align: justify">
         <form action="" method="get">
-  <input name="search" type="text" class="input" id="search" maxlength="40" value="<?= $_GET['search'] ?>" />
+  <input name="search" type="text" class="input" id="search" maxlength="40" value="<?= $_GET['search'] ?? '' ?>" />
   <input name="queue" type="hidden" value="0" />
   <button type="submit" id="choose" name="action" value="choose" class="inputbutton">Search</button>
 </form>
 </div>
-<?  }
+<?php  }
 echo display_stories();
 ?>