// takes an input URL of an image, and resize + save  into a thumbnail
// can take a few seconds if large input image

$re = "/(https?:\\/\\/.*\\.(?:png|jpg|gif))/";
preg_match($re, $article, $matches);
$filename = $matches[0];

list($width, $height) = getimagesize($filename);
$thumb = imagecreatetruecolor($size, $size);
$source = imagecreatefromjpeg($filename); break;

imagecopyresampled($thumb, $source, 0, 0, $width/2 - $height/2, 0, 70, 70, $height, $height);
imagejpeg($thumb, "./thumbnails/$last_id.jpg");
imagedestroy($thumb);