The bandleader, drummer, DJ and broadcaster is guest-editing this week’s Saturday magazine Culture features. In his editor’s letter, he shares why he’s optimistic for the future. Plus: his bandmates offer their cultural picks

• ‘Things work out for the good people’: Ezra Collective’s Femi Koleoso meets his inspirations
• ‘Like painting with light’: photographer Temi Adegbayibi on capturing the energy of music
• My cultural awakening, featuring Ezra Collective

My first thought when contacted about guest editing the culture section in today’s Saturday magazine was: this will elevate me into an intellectual bracket far beyond my wildest dreams. The first person I told was my dad. The second was my secondary school English teacher, Mr Pickering. I guess it was a subtle way of letting them know that the student is now in charge.

It’s a truly wonderful feeling. Even if this entire takeover is trash, I’m still proud to have been given this wonderful opportunity. That said, I did get an A in my GCSE English and English Lit!

Police received information nearly immediately after the killing. It took Las Vegas police 27 years to make an arrest

For years, US law enforcement officials blamed their failure to solve hip-hop star Tupac Shakur’s murder on the lack of cooperation from key witnesses, and on gang members’ “snitches get stitches” culture.

But testimony in a much-delayed murder trial, which concluded this week, almost 30 years after Shakur’s death, highlighted just how much law enforcement officials knew about the shooting, and how early.

Tories and Reform hope to unseat the incumbent by tempting some Labour voters to shift to the right

The bicycles have been brought out and eager fists are getting ready to knock on hundreds of doors as the race for one of the most sought-after jobs in British politics springs into action.

Sadiq Khan has had a vice-like grip on London, but a range of candidates hoping to unseat him in 2028 have announced themselves. The three-time mayor has been coy about whether he will stand again, and said he would make a decision next year.

A Dr Seuss-style story written in seconds alerted me to the power – and perils – of the technology. But how can children embrace it without forgetting core skills?

When I was growing up, my dad and I often talked about a story we wanted to write together. It was called “The Day Nobody Went to Disneyland”. One day, the story goes, the weather is so perfect that everyone in the world decides to stay away from Disneyland because they expect it to be far too busy. But my dad, who has the same thought as them, sees the disappointment on my face that morning – and decides to risk it. We set off. And when we arrive, the park is completely empty. Nobody else was brave enough to visit. We have everything – the rides, shows, food – to ourselves.

I loved the idea of writing that story. But, as so often happens, we were too busy to do anything about it. Life ran away from us. I grew up, and we both forgot about it.

Investors in Emblehope Moor will get their financial returns – and then it will be given to community or charity owners

It is difficult to find the most remote place in England. There is no public transport, no roads and no sign of any human habitation. Online route finders mistakenly direct cars up a grassy track. But miles along gravel forest roads in the far north of Northumberland is the largest contiguous rewilding site under single ownership in the country.

The vast glacial bowl of 7,500-acre Emblehope Moor has been bought for £8.5m by Restore, a nature restoration company that works with landowners across Britain.

Betsy and Felix have sex once a week when they are alone in the house – it frees up their minds just to be together

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

I used to kick guys out of bed after any sexual encounters. But with Felix it was totally different from the start

Serhii Beskrestnov says deadlock on frontline and increasing use of deep strikes is placing civilians and infrastructure at greater risk

Russia and Ukraine are locked in an escalating war of long-range strikes with a growing risk to civilians in which neither side can entirely prevail, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s defence technology adviser.

Serhii Beskrestnov, widely known by his call sign, Flash, said he was worried about the prospects for Kyiv this winter, and suggested elderly people should be evacuated in case Russian bombing were to knock out the capital’s energy supply.

Robert Jenrick says party has followed legal protocol ‘at all times’ as Met police consider launching investigation

• UK politics live – latest updates

Nigel Farage has acknowledged the overseas donation row engulfing Reform UK “looks bad” for his party but denied it had ever taken foreign money in breach of electoral law.

The Reform leader, who is battling to contain the fallout from the allegations, was asked to categorically rule out that foreign money had ever been funnelled to his party. He replied: “I can … never happened.”

Business secretary says masked anti-immigration protest was ‘not something we would want’ on British streets

A cabinet minister has condemned the blocking of Dover roads by dozens of masked and black-clad people on Saturday.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said that although peaceful protest was an “essential part of British life”, this differed from “dressing up in costumes like this and disrupting people’s lives”.

Leon Panetta tells Guardian US is risking ‘forever war’ and says Pentagon ‘turmoil’ sending message of weakness

Donald Trump’s war with Iran is likely to drag on for another six months, Leon Panetta, the former US defense secretary, has warned, as the US president struggles to find his way out of the controversial conflict.

Panetta declared in an interview that the war with Iran – launched by Trump over six months ago – risks becoming another “forever war in the Middle East”, with no clear end in sight.