Intense high tides have destroyed homes and businesses in Juanchaco and affected 3,000 families. But many in the Afro-Colombian community that live there are choosing to ‘stay in a different way’

• Words and photographs by Mario Toro Quintero

Buenaventura is the most important port on Colombia’s Pacific coast, handling about 40% of the country’s foreign trade and acting as the gateway to the Uramba Bahía Málaga national natural park. Every year, tens of thousands of tourists arrive there, heading to the village of Juanchaco or the beaches of Ladrilleros and La Barra.

But the coast around Juanchaco, in the Valle del Cauca department, is experiencing accelerated erosion that has already left damaged streets, collapsed homes and a local economy exposed to the elements.

On the beach front in Juanchaco, damage caused by the rising tides has forced some people to evacuate their homes

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A vast migrant labour force is helping India meet its ambitious renewable energy goals, drawn by promises of good wages and perks. But many say they are forced to ‘escape’ without pay

A month into his new job at the world’s largest renewable energy park in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch, Anawar Alam was planning his escape. Hired along with 17 others who had travelled with him to work on the construction of a solar project, Alam had hoped that the promised pay and perks would support his family back home on the farm in Bihar. But within two weeks he was having second thoughts.

“Nothing really prepared us for where we would be working or the fact that it was so far from the nearest village. The work was strenuous, the shifts were 12 hours, and we were living in makeshift tents,” says Alam.

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Whether to kill one species to save another has split biologists, anglers and Indigenous communities in the Miramichi

• Photographs by Brittany Crossman

Since the 19th century, Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi have lured politicians, celebrities and wealthy anglers from across North America and Europe to fishing camps along the river’s banks, its undammed branches once producing more of the fish than almost any other river on the continent. In 2010, the fishery was valued at C$16m (£8.6m) and provided hundreds of jobs.

Rip Cunningham has been travelling from the US state of Massachusetts to the Canadian province of New Brunswick to fish since the 1970s. When he first started, he would sit on the deck at the Black Brook Salmon Club, on one of the Miramachi’s tributaries, watching the water boil with the leaps and rolls of salmon.

Rip Cunningham has witnessed the decline of salmon numbers in the Miramichi River since the 1970s

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Nasa dismisses theory by Harvard astronomer who suggested an object from beyond the solar system could be a relic from a distant civilization

Skywatchers at Nasa have discounted a Harvard astronomer’s hypothesis that a rare interstellar object hurtling through our solar system is a relic from a civilization in another celestial neighborhood, and “could potentially be dire for humanity”.

Avi Loeb, head of Harvard University’s Galileo Project, which searches for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, raised eyebrows by suggesting in a scientific paper in July that Comet 3I/Atlas, set for a close pass with Mars next month, could be artificially made.

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What goes on tour, stays on tour as Uefa meets to discuss La Liga’s and Serie A’s request to play competitive matches abroad

The caramel-coloured tiles on the facade are long gone, and the name changed eight years ago, and there are now wraparound LED screens and an “immersive” museum experience and a lot more bright yellow than you would ideally want. And it’s harder to park right next to the ground like you used to, and many of the locals still insist on calling it El Madrigal. But still they come every other weekend, and buy horchata from the stalls out the front, and sit with the same old friends in the same old bars with the same old faded photos on the wall. Because for all that has changed over the years, this is still their town, their team, their tradition. And when their beloved Villarreal are playing there is nowhere else they would rather be.

But when they play their home game against Barcelona the week before Christmas, the Estadio de la Cerámica is likely to be sitting empty. For the small industrial town of 50,000 just off the A7 motorway, it will feel just like any other night. The classic club anthems will reverberate not in Castellón but more than 4,000 miles away in the Miami suburbs. And football’s dystopian, fungible future will never have been closer to becoming its dystopian, fungible present.

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• Swimmer is first British athlete to sign up for event

• Proud: ‘These are opportunities I cannot pass by at 30’

Olympic swimming silver medallist Ben Proud, the first British athlete to sign up for the Enhanced Games, has accepted he risks sullying his reputation but admitted he is chiefly motivated by the potential huge financial rewards in the twilight of his career.

The swimmer told the BBC Today programme on Thursday: “There’s a huge financial incentive with this and I would be lying if I said it didn’t matter. If you look at the facts it would take me 13 years of winning world championship titles just to earn what I can win at one competition at the Enhanced Games.

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La Liga’s salary limit applies to the whole club and with six players leaving this summer, is the club’s golden era over?

How times have changed. For the past few years Barcelona have been the team everyone wanted to join: five consecutive Champions League finals, stylish football, leaders in women’s football, a stunning city and Ballon d’Or winners for teammates. However, 10 years after becoming professional, the three-time European champions are a club in trouble.

Restricted by La Liga’s financial fair play rules, the women’s team have had a calamitous summer transfer window. There have been six departures – all to the Women’s Super League – while the midfielder Alba Caño is leaving for the NWSL in January. They made only one signing, Laia Aleixandri on a free transfer from Manchester City.

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Changes to tax relief on pensions isn’t a straightforward solution to the budget deficit, says Prof Stephen Caddick

Phillip Inman’s focus on pension tax relief does highlight areas where savings might be made in the long term – but there are no quick fixes (Reeves’s £50bn problem solved: stop splashing it in pension tax relief, theguardian.com, 6 September). Moreover, his proposals would probably disproportionately impact public sector workers because of their membership of defined benefit pension schemes.

A significant reduction of the tax-free cash payment may deliver some savings from such schemes. According to figures on Dan Neidle’s Tax Policy Associates website – capping the benefit at £100k might save £5bn – a sum that might usefully offset a few weeks of government debt interest payments each year.

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