How to set SQL query in Yii2 via AD?

Question

Yii

There is a request like

SELECT n.id, n.name, SUBSTRING(n.`text`, 1, 256 ) AS `text`, cat.id as cat_id, cat.name as cat_name
FROM news n
LEFT JOIN category as cat on (cat.id = n.category_id)
WHERE category_id = 1

I would like it not in its pure form, but through ActiveRecords.
I got it like this

$query = News::find()
      ->select([
            '{{%news}}.`id`',
            '{{%news}}.`name`', 
            'SUBSTRING({{%news}}.`text`, 1, 256 ) AS `text`', 
            '{{%news}}.`date`', 
            '{{%category}}.`id` AS cat_id',
            '{{%category}}.`name` AS `cat_name`'
     			])
      ->leftJoin('{{%category}}', '{{%category}}.id = {{%news}}.category_id')
      ->where($where['where'], $where['arr']);

And another point - how to place this request in the model and not in the controller