shortcode function outputs multiple anchor tags

Question

I have a shortcode function which displays the latest news, the code for a news item is as follows:

$html .= '<div class="latest-news">';
$html .= '<a href="' . get_permalink($recent["ID"]) . '">';
$html .= '<h2>' . $recent["post_title"] . '</h2>';
$html .= '</a>';
$html .= '</div>';

this should output the following HTML:

<div class="latest-news">
    <a href="[permalink]">
        <h2>[post_title]</h2>
    </a>
</div>

For some reason the anchor tag is outputted twice:

<div class="latest-news">
    <a href="[permalink]">
        <br>
        <h2>[post_title]</h2>
    </a>
    <p>
        <a href="[permalink]"></a>
    </p>
</div>

This looks to be happening because of the following code, commenting it out solved the problem:

remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' , 99) ;
add_filter( 'the_content', 'shortcode_unautop', 100 );

I can't figure out a way to remove the wpautop filter and not output the extra anchor tag.

Shortcode in full:

function latest_news() {

    $args = array( 'numberposts' => 5 );
    $recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts( $args );

    $html = '';

    $html .= '<div class="latest-news-container">';

    foreach ($recent_posts as $recent) {

        $permalink = get_permalink($recent["ID"]);

        $html .= '<div class="latest-news">';
        $html .= '<a href="' . $permalink . '">';
        $html .= '<div>';
        $html .= '<h2>' . $recent["post_title"] . '</h2>';
        $html .= '</div>';
        $html .= '</a>';
        $html .= '</div>';

    }

    $html .= '</div>';

    return $html;
}
add_shortcode("latest_news", "latest_news");

Answer 1

You are trying to remove the filter before adding the filter and one more thing you are not adding the correct priority.

remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' ); //removing before adding without priorities.
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' , 99) ;
add_filter( 'the_content', 'shortcode_unautop', 100 );

Try remove the filter at the end with same priority when you add.

add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' , 99) ;
add_filter( 'the_content', 'shortcode_unautop', 100 );
remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop', 99); 
remove_filter( 'the_content', 'shortcode_unautop', 100 );