- parse_str: documentation ( source)
- htmlspecialchars_decode: documentation ( source)
- parse_url: documentation ( source)
<?php
$url = 'https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2020-11-01-hawks-following-former-steinhoff-ceo-markus-joostes-money/&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjRm';
parse_str(htmlspecialchars_decode(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY)), $parts);
echo $parts['url'];