php - replace   characters that are hidden in text

Question

How to remove   (that are hidden) and SPACES in below text but

• hold UNICODE characters
• hold <br> tag

i tested:

• i used trim($string) => NOT WORKED
• i used str_replace(' ', '', $string) => NOT WORKED

• i used some regex => NOT WORKED

              <br>????? ????: ?????? ?? ???? ??? ????
  

UPDATE: Thanks

Answer 1

This solution will work, I tested it:

$string = htmlentities($content, null, 'utf-8');
$content = str_replace(" ", "", $string);
$content = html_entity_decode($content);