CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Rong Niu's pink sequined dress shimmered under the arena lights at a recent Miami men's basketball game.
The popular halftime performer known as “Red Panda” finished her signature seven-minute set, looked up at a crowd of fans chanting her name and flashed a smile before dismounting.
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Red Panda carries her unicycle back to her dressing room after performing at halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Miami cheerleaders react as they meet Red Panda after she performed at halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Red Panda performs during halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Red Panda performs during halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Red Panda performs as Miami's mascot Sebastian the Ibis looks on during halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Red Panda performs during halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Cameras rose instantly. A Hurricanes band member shouted "I love you, Red Panda!" A security guard shook his head in disbelief as a nearby fan asked aloud, "How does she do that?” Members of the Hurricanes' dance team lined up for photos with her before she made her exit.
Niu has grown somewhat accustomed to the fanfare over decades performing at NBA, WNBA and college basketball games — her first halftime show was a Los Angeles Clippers game in 1993. Still, even after sports fans rallied around her following a frightening fall during a WNBA game last July, she can hardly put words to what the support means to her.
“I feel so much support," Niu said after performing at Miami’s home game against Stanford on Wednesday. "It’s beyond support — I don’t know. I don’t have a better word to describe that feeling. That was beyond appreciation.”
Niu comes from a family of performing acrobats. She's been doing it since age 7, when her father first discovered her talent by helping her balance bowls and bricks on her head at their home in China’s Shanxi province.
Her act is composed of her riding a custom-built unicycle, which stretches about 8 feet above the court, and balancing custom-made bowls on her lower leg before flipping them atop her head.
During intermission of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup final between the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx, Niu fell off her unicycle and crashed to the court a minute into her performance. She remained down for several minutes, was eventually helped off by wheelchair and later diagnosed with a broken left wrist.
“I now realize I was disoriented. It was not just pain right here,” Niu said Wednesday, pointing to her left wrist, which she recalled being swollen and in immense pain. “I wasn’t very clear because of the impact. They said, ‘Can you walk?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and then I tried to stand up and walk. And then, I think I was passing out."
She spent 11 hours in a Minneapolis hospital, with a pair of Lynx staffers there with her the entire time. As she lay in the hospital bed, she wondered what could have gone wrong during the act she'd performed so many times.
“I’m not saying I’m that good or anything,” she said. “I generally don’t fall. Bowls fall, because the bowls are going into the air and sometimes I’m not able to control (them). But riding the unicycle ... it shouldn’t be out of control.”
Niu returned to the arena after being released from the hospital. Her unicycle was in the same place she'd left it in her dressing room.
She began to inspect it, checking the rotation of the wheel, looking at the handle. Then she noticed one of her pedals was slightly bent. She typically wraps her equipment very carefully when she travels, but it had somehow been damaged in transit; whether during security checks or on the airplane, she's not sure.
“Normally I would set up the unicycle. I will test it. I test like this," she said, turning her wheel as she demonstrated her process of checking the equipment. “I test it. But I didn’t test (the pedal).”
Niu still shudders at the memory of the fall, which required surgery and about four months of recovery, but she received an outpouring of support on social media, including from Fever star Caitlin Clark, as well as cards and gifts.
She returned to action on Oct. 23 for an Amazon Prime event, then back to the NBA court on Nov. 1 for a game between Chicago and Philadelphia.
Returning to the court hasn't been easy.
“I still have the thoughts,” she said. “I still have the thoughts when I start pedaling.”
But as fans chant her name, foregoing halftime trips to concession stands and restrooms to watch her perform, Niu is filled with both gratitude and motivation.
“I want to show that I can do this,” she said. “But (when) I couldn’t do it, they still chanted for me. I feel I owe them something. I feel very appreciative. I don’t have the best words to describe that feeling, but it’s a lot of support. It goes in my heart.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Red Panda carries her unicycle back to her dressing room after performing at halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Miami cheerleaders react as they meet Red Panda after she performed at halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Red Panda performs during halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Red Panda performs during halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Red Panda performs as Miami's mascot Sebastian the Ibis looks on during halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Red Panda performs during halftime of an NCAA college basketball game between Miami and Stanford in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday honored the lives of four U.S. service members who were killed in the Middle East and returned to their families at an air force base in Delaware.
The president saluted as four transfer cases carrying the service members' remains were escorted off an airplane during the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base. The ritual is one of the most somber duties of a commander in chief. It was the third Trump has attended since he launched the war in Iran in February.
Trump was scheduled to meet privately with the grieving families. Speaking to reporters on his way to Dover, Trump called the ritual “one of the hardest things to do as a president.” His message to the families, he said, was, “We love you. We love your child.”
“There’s no games, there’s no nothing — that’s their child,” Trump said. “And all you can do is throw out your heart.”
Trump was accompanied by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Also present were Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.
During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to awaiting vehicles to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place.
Two U.S. Army soldiers killed in Iranian missile and drone attacks in Jordan were returned during the dignified transfer. The remains of a third service member who is believed to be the soldier missing after the Jordan attacks were also returned, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in Iraq during a detonation of an Iranian drone.
The soldiers killed in Jordan were identified by the Defense Department as Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii; and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. The soldier who disappeared after the Jordan attacks is Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, the Defense Department said.
The soldier killed in Iraq was identified as Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, who lived in Spring Lake, North Carolina.
The White House said Feehan's family would be joining on Air Force One later on Wednesday as Trump travels to Georgia for an event promoting his administration's investment accounts for children.
Trump previously said the soldiers died while protecting America and other nations from Iran.
“We feel very badly, but you know, those great people, those great patriots were out there fighting so that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. He added that the U.S. was striking Iran “in honor” of the fallen troops.
The U.S. has launched multiple retaliatory strikes against Iran as an interim agreement to end the war falls apart. Trump on Monday said that every time Iran kills an American soldier, “they will pay for that killing many times over!”
Since the war began on Feb. 28, 18 U.S. service members have been killed.
Trump on Tuesday said that while almost all the incoming fire in Jordan was stopped, some made it through.
“They did slip something through in Jordan,” he said. “If we had other operators, you know, it would have not happened, unfortunately.”
He went on: “We’ve stopped almost everything, but when you let other people do your job with the United States — we let other people do the job — and sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.”
Trump did not elaborate on his comments, and it was not immediately clear who he was saying was responsible for protecting U.S. forces in Jordan.
Trump attended two previous dignified transfers since the outset of the war, most recently in March.
Feehan, a first lieutenant who was killed Saturday, will be posthumously promoted to the rank of captain and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge. He was assigned out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.
Feehan’s family said in a statement that their hearts were shattered by his loss. They remembered Feehan, who went by “Tivo,” as someone who “packed in more living” in his 25 years than most do in a lifetime.
“He chased adventure relentlessly,” the statement said. “He believed deeply in the power of military service, especially what it builds in a person: discipline, leadership, character.”
He planned to marry his fiance and attend law school after his deployment. The family said they’re starting a scholarship in his name.
Gonzales, who was killed Friday, was a private with the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany. She graduated last year from Hebron High School in Carrollton, near Dallas, school officials said.
Rampersad, a sergeant who was believed to have been killed in Friday's attacks, was assigned to the 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.
Swinton, a sergeant who was killed Sunday, will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted to staff sergeant. He enlisted in the Army in 2017 and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Binkley reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Michael Catalini contributed from Morrisville, Pennsylvania.
A U.S. Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A U.S. Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Pvt. Isabella Gonzales of Carrollton, Texas, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
President Donald Trump, far right, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, second from right, attend the dignified transfer of four U.S. service members recently killed in the Middle East, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth salute as a U.S. Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Pvt. Isabella Gonzales of Carrollton, Texas, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump salutes as a U.S. Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Pvt. Isabella Gonzales of Carrollton, Texas, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
This undated photo provided by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command shows 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan. (U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command via AP)
This undated image provided by the U.S. Army shows Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. (U.S. Army via AP)
This undated photo provided by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, shows Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton. (U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command via AP)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun listens as he meets with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, July 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
