People bathe in the sunshine at a beach in Brighton, United Kingdom, on May 26, as temperatures continue to soar. GARETH FULLER/AP

Records were broken in Britain, France, Ireland and Portugal last month as a "heat dome" of warm air from northern Africa pushed temperatures well above normal levels across…

The world experienced its second-hottest May on record, with Europe baking under an unusually early heatwave as climate extremes become the "new normal" on the continent, the EU's…