France: France's largest wildfire since 1949 has been successfully brought under control, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez. The fire, which ignited over a week ago in the Gironde department near the southwestern city of Bordeaux, had posed a significant challenge to firefighters in the region.

According to Emirates News Agency, Nunez reported that the fire is no longer advancing, although some areas continue to experience active fires. On Saturday, firefighters also managed to halt a new fast-moving blaze in the Var department, located in the southeast of the country.

For weeks, France has been grappling with wildfires fueled by a series of deadly heatwaves. These extreme weather conditions, which have led to dried-up riverbeds and vegetation, have been linked by scientists to human-induced climate change.

The southwestern region's wildfire had been contained more than a week after it erupted, scorching 42,000 hectares of pine forest-an area larger than the US city of Detroit-and destroying approximately 240 homes near the Atlantic coastline, close to Bordeaux, the renowned winemaking capital.

Most of the 220,000 residents who were evacuated from the path of the flames have since returned home. Satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) indicates that the total area of land burned in France this year has reached 92,000 hectares, marking the largest on record for any year in the past two decades.