Unable to remove %e2%80%8b Unicode from string

Question

I'm unable to remove a Unicode character from a string. In the following twig template.

  {% include 'components/accordion.twig' with {
      this: {
        id: program.slug,
        active: (loop.index == 1) ? true : false,
        header: header,
        body: body,
        cta: {
          href: program.get_permalink,
          text: __('Learn More', 'accessnyc-locations')
        }
      }
    } only %}
  {% endfor %}

The programs.slug returns a string with the Unicode %e2%80%8b

"aria-c-senior-citizens-rent-increase-exemption-%e2%80%8bscrie"

From the following Stackoverflow post it seems that the %e2%80%8b is somehow added to the string. When I try to replace it from the string the output string still the same. The correct output should be

"aria-c-senior-citizens-rent-increase-exemption-scrie"

I tried using replace(/\u200B/g,''); as shown in this example, without success. How can I go about removing Unicode characters from a string?

here is what I tried:

program.dataset.id  = program.id.replace('/[\x00-\x1F\x7F]/u', 'cookie');
"aria-c-senior-citizens-rent-increase-exemption-%e2%80%8bscrie"
program.dataset.id  = program.id.replace('/[\x00-\x1F\x7F]/u', '');
"aria-c-senior-citizens-rent-increase-exemption-%e2%80%8bscrie"
   program.dataset.id  = program.id.replace('/[\x00-\x1F\x7F]/', 'cookie');
    "aria-c-senior-citizens-rent-increase-exemption-%e2%80%8bscrie"

i also tried

   {% autoescape %}
    {% include 'components/accordion.twig' with {
      this: {
        id: {{ programs.slug|raw }},
        active: (loop.index == 1) ? true : false,
        header: header,
        body: body,
        cta: {
          href: program.get_permalink,
          text: __('Learn More', 'accessnyc-locations')
        }
      }
    } only %}
  {% endfor %}
  {% endautoescape %}

How can I go about removing these from the string?