Emoji/Unicode icons not rendered in markdown tables (VS Code extension)

Description

Emoji and Unicode icons (✅ ❌ ⚠️ 🔧 etc.) are not displayed when used inside markdown tables in the Claude Code VS Code extension chat output. They appear as empty/blank characters.

The same emojis render correctly outside of tables in the same chat output.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Claude Code in VS Code (panel mode)
2. Ask Claude to output a markdown table with emoji, e.g.:

| # | Status |
|---|--------|
| 1 | ✅ Done |
| 2 | ❌ Failed |

1. Observe: emoji inside table cells are not visible
2. Ask Claude to output the same emoji outside a table → they render correctly

Expected Behavior

Emoji should render inside markdown table cells the same as outside tables.

Environment

• OS: macOS (Darwin 24.6.0)
• VS Code: Latest
• Claude Code Extension: Latest
• Font: Menlo, Monaco, 'Courier New', monospace, Apple Color Emoji (configured in settings)
• Setting: claudeCode.preferredLocation: "panel"

Workaround

Use text instead of emoji in tables (e.g., "Done" instead of "✅").