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‘You’d need two people with a ladder to get it’ … a recreation of the stolen Caravaggio Nativity. Photograph: José Pereira/Courtesy: Factum Arte‘You’d need two people with a ladder to get it’ … a recreation of the stolen Caravaggio Nativity. Photograph: José Pereira/Courtesy: Factum ArteMichelangelo Merisi da CaravaggioMissing since the 1960s, Caravaggio’s Christ in the manger is believed to have been stolen by the mafia and eaten by hogs. But could the painting now be recovered in time for Christmas?

Cern This article is more than 15 years oldA temple to mystery and imaginationThis article is more than 15 years oldJonathan GlanceyThe enormous constructions at Cern evoke great cathedrals and Egyptian pyramids, says Jonathan Glancey. Paradoxically, this extreme expression of modern science may be the most spritual structure of our timeThe huge underground complex of Cern is almost entirely hidden from sight. The presence of this wonder of the modern world is, to say the least, muted.

Children's book roundupBooksReviewA celebration of family; a guide to animal languages; Stonehenge spells; classroom crises; and dreams of becoming an alchemist DIs for Dog by Em Lynas, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie, Nosy Crow, £9.99 A lovely, lollopy picture-book alphabet of dog preoccupations (Bark, Itch, Napping etc), which bounces from A to Z in gleeful rhyme, with a bonus alphabet of breeds at the back. Ogilvie’s round-eyed, boisterous pups are inimitably charming.

TravelThe company, which began as a record label, beat the odds to offer a space where women could ‘come out and be themselves’ Jai Henrietta still remembers the first time she went on an Olivia Travel vacation: “I just stood there with my mouth open. Seeing 2,000 women in one space, all cuddling, holding hands, and kissing – it was a utopia for me.” Henrietta has now traveled six times with Olivia, the world’s first travel company for lesbians.

Fiction This article is more than 4 years oldSequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz branded 'lurid and titillating' by survivor's stepsonThis article is more than 4 years oldGeorge Kovach also called Heather Morris’s Cilka’s Journey, which is based on his stepmother Cecilia’s life, ‘appalling and extremely hurtful’ The stepson of a Slovakian woman who survived Auschwitz, only to be sent to a Soviet gulag, has branded the novelist Heather Morris’s “lurid and titillating” version of his stepmother’s story “appalling and extremely hurtful”.

Rob Dobi Illustration: Rob DobiRob Dobi Illustration: Rob DobiBack to schoolUS universitiesStudents can opt out of hooking up, and many do. But my research makes clear that they can’t opt out of hookup culture Moments before it happened, Cassidy, Jimena and Declan were sitting in the girls’ shared dorm room, casually chatting about what the cafeteria might be offering for dinner that night. They were just two weeks into their first year of college and looking forward to heading down to the meal hall – when suddenly Declan leaned over, grabbed the waist of Cassidy’s jeans, and pulled her crotch toward his face, proclaiming: “Dinner’s right here!

Painstaking craft … Jessie Burton. Photograph: Russell G Sneddon/Writer PicturesPainstaking craft … Jessie Burton. Photograph: Russell G Sneddon/Writer PicturesBook of the dayFictionReviewA double portrait of hidden creativity set in swinging 60s London and civil war Spain from a writer who cannot be faulted for ambition The imaginative boldness that distinguished Jessie Burton’s 2014 debut novel, The Miniaturist, earned her critical raves and an international bestseller: her fans will be eager to know if she can reprise the trick with her follow-up.

The KnowledgeSoccerPlus: refs sharing names with teams they are officiating and more odd uses for football grounds Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU “Any ideas on the most completed passes ever recorded in a football match?” asks Charlie Welton. Despite locking all our finest boffins into rooms tasked with watching every football match of the last 120 years to add up every pass, we could not get the answer.

Illustration: Max-o-matic/The GuardianTrump, Covid and streaming have weakened the country’s cultural dominance – and artists around the world are filling the gap by Steve RoseThe weekend before last was something of a post-coronavirus reawakening for cinema. The release of Tenet at last gave mass audiences a new Hollywood blockbuster to queue up for, albeit in a masked, socially distanced, hand-sanitised way. Its healthy $53m opening weekend was as much cause for celebration as the movie world has been able to muster in 2020, but conspicuously absent from the party was Hollywood itself.