Release: v1.8

[qgallouedec]

What does this PR do?

Fixes # (issue)

Before submitting

• This PR fixes a typo or improves the docs (you can dismiss the other checks if that's the case).
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Note

Low Risk
Version and citation metadata plus a CI ref pin only; no library or runtime behavior changes.

Overview
Bumps the project to v1.8.0 for the v1.8 release.

VERSION moves from 1.8.0.dev0 to 1.8.0, and CITATION.cff records version 1.8. The scheduled tests_latest workflow now checks out v1.8-release instead of v1.7-release, so nightly runs against the current release branch.

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[bot-ci-comment]

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