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Families danced, sang to old school classics, and shouted in excitement during the City of Dallas’ Martin Luther King Day Celebration on Monday. After the kickoff ceremony, dance performances followed on a shutdown MLK Blvd, setting the stage for the 2026 City of Dallas MLK Parade. The event was hosted and produced by the nonprofit H.E.L.P. (Hope Encourage Love Protect). The theme of this year’s event was “Marching in Unity with Purpose.” Organizers told NBC 5 that as the gathering grows each year, its mission remains the same: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, his legacy and bringing communities together. According to H.E.L.P, there were over 200 entries for the parade. Those entries included floats, dance teams, cultural organizations, first responders, youth groups, civic partners, historically black sororities and fraternities and others. “In the current climate, I would say we have experienced a lot of sadness, heartbreak… a lot of anxiety,” Gregory Harrington with H.E.L.P said. “So, if we can have one day, where you can put all your troubles away…and you can just come out and enjoy your next-door neighbor, the person down the street, somebody you don’t know… this is why we do it…bringing us together and working in unity. Because that is the ideology of Mr. Martin Luther King.” The parade showcased efforts to honor Dr. King’s dream of a more harmonious society. “We like to celebrate all people,” Harrington said. “We believe we do this for all, not just for one culture.”

VSCO filters, Kylie lip kits and the summer of Pokemon Go. The year 2016 is making a comeback in 2026 as people flood Instagram with throwback posts reminiscing about what they viewed as an iconic year for popular culture and the internet. In the past two weeks, many people online — from celebrities to regular Instagram users — dug through their camera rolls and Snapchat memories to unearth hyper-filtered photos of themselves a decade ago. Many of the photos share common themes now emblematic of the era: a matte lip and winged eyeliner, bold eyebrows and glamorous eye shadow. Acai bowls and boxed water. Chokers, aviator glasses and boho outfits made trendy by Coachella. “When I’m seeing people’s 2016 posts, even if they were in different states or slightly different ages, there’s all these similarities, like that dog filter or those chokers or The Chainsmokers,” said Katrina Yip, one of many people online who posted 2016 throwback photos. “It makes it so funny to realize that we were all part of this big movement that we didn’t really even know at the time was, like, just following the trend of that time.” The trend has become the latest example of people online romanticizing a different time as a form of escapism. Last year, Gen Zers, typically defined as those ages 14-29, posted videos expressing love for the charm and “cringe” of millennials. There has also been a recent surge in millennial-focused pop culture, which has been celebrated online. To many millennials and older Gen Z, 2016 was a year when community flourished on social media. People dumped their entire camera rolls into messy Facebook photo albums, sent each other silly Snapchat selfies and eagerly posted what they ate for brunch. “If you’re older, like maybe you were 50 in 2016 and you weren’t on Instagram or a heavy internet user, you might be like, ‘Why does everyone care about this random year?’” said Steffy Degreff, who shared her own throwback photos last week. Degreff, 38, said that for those who’ve been on social media for more than a decade, there’s nostalgia for the way social media used to function — with chronological feeds that focused only on the users people followed. There used to be an end to scrolling (specifically, when you ran out of updates from your friends). Platforms back then felt “a little bit less malicious” in their design, she said. “I do think that 2016 was the beginning of the end of a golden era of when people felt really good about the internet and social media and politics,” she added. “And then, obviously, the pandemic happened.” Many online who voiced their nostalgia described the overall energy of 2016 as “colorful” and “carefree.” Social Media Jan 18 Social media addiction's surprising challenger? Anti-doomscrolling influencers Celebrity News Dec 28, 2025 Influencers reveal how much money they make Social Media Dec 3, 2025 Is brain rot real? Researchers warn of emerging risks tied to short-form video People often went out in crop tops and jeans with a flannel tied around their waist. They’d snap pictures of an outfit laid out carefully on their bed or of a giant acai bowl. Then, they’d pore over VSCO (a popular photo editing app) filters with their friends, debating which preset to choose. “Now, we’ve gone very neutral-toned, like quiet luxury aesthetic, very minimal,” said Paige Lorentzen, who shared throwback photos featuring some of the trendiest brands of the time, such as Boxed Water Is Better and Triangl Swimwear. “Whereas back then, it was the brighter the saturation on your photos, the better. Everything felt like summer.” The new year marked exactly 10 years since 2016; therefore, many online began posting the phrase “2026 is the new 2016,” according to the database Know Your Meme. But “as the trend carried on, some social media users began posting videos denouncing the idea of making 2026 the new 2016, citing problems with living in the past and pointing out bad things that happened in 2016,” Know Your Meme…

Several faith leaders called urgently for protecting the rights of worshippers while also expressing compassion for migrants after anti-immigration enforcement protesters disrupted a service at a Southern Baptist church in Minnesota. About three dozen protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul during Sunday service, some walking right up to the pulpit, others loudly chanting “ICE out” and “Renee Good,” referring to a woman who was fatally shot on Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. One of the church’s pastors, David Easterwood, leads the local ICE field office, and one of the leaders of the protest and prominent local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong said she’s also an ordained pastor. The Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention called what happened “an unacceptable trauma,” saying the service was ”forced to end prematurely” as protesters shouted “insults and accusations at youth, children, and families.” “I believe we must be resolute in two areas: encouraging our churches to provide compassionate pastoral care to these (migrant) families and standing firm for the sanctity of our houses of worship,” Trey Turner, who leads the convention, told The Associated Press on Monday. Cities Church belongs to the convention. The U.S. Department of Justice said it has opened a civil rights investigation. Minnesota Jan 18 FBI asks agents to travel to Minneapolis for temporary assignments amid protests, sources say Immigration Jan 17 Federal officials investigating Renee Good's widow in shooting probe, sources say The recent surge in operations in Minnesota has pitted more than 2,000 federal immigration officers against community activists and protesters. The Trump administration and Minnesota officials have traded blame for the heightened tensions. “No cause — political or otherwise — justifies the desecration of a sacred space or the intimidation and trauma inflicted on families gathered peacefully in the house of God,” Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board, said in a statement. “What occurred was not protest; it was lawless harassment.” Jonathan Parnell, the pastor who led the disrupted service, is a missionary with Ezell’s group and serves dozens of Southern Baptist churches in the area. Cities Church, housed in a Gothic-style, century-old stone building next to a college campus on one of the Twin Cities’ landmark boulevards, has not returned AP requests for comment. Christians disagree on immigration enforcement Christians in the United States are divided on the moral and legal dilemmas raised by immigration, including the presence of an estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally and the spike in illegal border crossings and asylum requests during the Biden administration. Opinions differ between and within denominations on whether Christians must prioritize care for strangers and neighbors or the immigration enforcement push in the name of security. White evangelicals tend to support strong enforcement, while Catholic leaders have spoken in favor of migrant rights. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. and has a conservative evangelical theology. Miles Mullin, the vice-president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said faith leaders can and often have led protests on social issues, but those should never prevent others from worshipping. “This is something that just shouldn’t happen in America,” Mullin said. “For Baptists, our worship services are sacred.” On Facebook, Levy Armstrong wrote about Sunday’s protest in religious terms: “It’s time for judgment to begin and it will begin in the House of God!!!” But Albert Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the protesters’ tactics unjustifiable. “For Christians, the precedent of invading a congregation at worship should be unthinkable,” Mohler said in an interview. “I think the…

A pileup involving as many as 100 cars shut down a western Michigan highway on Monday and left many drivers stranded in dangerous weather conditions. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s office reported a multi-vehicle crash just before noon on Interstate 196 near 64th Avenue in Zeeland Township, located about 25 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. The crash shut down I-196 in both directions between Hudsonville and Zeeland, leaving many drivers stranded. Buses from Hudsonville Public Schools were being used to transport stranded drivers from the scene to Hudsonville High School, the sheriff’s office said. “Motorists currently stranded on scene should remain inside their vehicles until they are able to board a bus for transportation to Hudsonville High School,” the department wrote. “We are asking the public to avoid driving today, especially in this area, due to hazardous conditions.” NBC affiliate station WOOD-TV reported the crash involved as many as 100 vehicles, and “includes several jack-knifed semi-trucks.” Images purportedly of the scene showed several semis in ditches and crashed vehicles on snowy roadways. The National Weather Service had warned Monday that “travel is not recommended near and west of US 131 this morning into the afternoon.” “This especially includes I-196,” the agency wrote on X. “Whiteouts, slide offs and multi car accidents have been observed on major roads via MDOT webcams as lake effect snow bands and blowing snow are occurring.” Snowfall rates of up to a half-inch per hour were reported. According to WOOD-TV, the interstate was closed for roughly eight hours but had reopened as of 6 p.m. About nine to 12 people were injured in the pileup and taken to area hospitals, authorities said. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.