India, July 31 -- French authorities gave the go-ahead Thursday for 84,000 evacuees forced out by a monster wildfire to go back to their homes in southwest France, the strongest sign yet that firefighters are turning a corner in their battle against the flames that have burned an area four times the size of Paris.

Europe is enduring one of its hottest summers on record, with wildfires breaking out in areas stretching from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean, and hundreds of thousands of people ordered to evacuate from homes and vacation destinations.

Firefighters fanned out to battle infernos in places like England, Spain, and Turkiye, while in Romania, officials at the state-owned Cernavoda nuclear power plant shut down bot...