US war hero turned senator, John McCain, has died at the age of 81.
The 2008 Republican presidential candidate died on Saturday surrounded by his family, a short statement released by his office said.
He was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in July 2017 and had been undergoing medical treatment.
His family announced on Friday that Mr McCain, who left Washington in December, had decided to stop treatment.
His daughter, Meghan McCain, said the task of her lifetime would now be “to live up to his example, his expectations, and his love.
“The days and years to come will not be the same without my dad – but they will be good days, filled with life and love, because of the example he lived for us,” she wrote in a statement shared on Twitter.
The six-term senator was diagnosed after doctors discovered his tumour during surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye last July.
His family said he would lie in state in Phoenix, Arizona, and in Washington DC before a funeral at the Washington National Cathedral and his burial in Annapolis, Maryland.
The son and grandson of Navy admirals, McCain was a fighter pilot during the war in Vietnam. When his plane was shot down, he spent more than five years as a prisoner of war.
While in the custody of his captors, he suffered torture that left him with lasting disabilities.
McCain never won the top political office for which he longed. Throughout his life, however, he offered a full-throated defence of an America that was active and engaged in the world. In his final years he sparred with President Donald Trump over the direction of the Republican Party and the principles it should embrace.
Former President George W Bush described McCain as “a patriot of the highest order”, adding: “He was a public servant in the finest traditions of our country. And to me, he was a friend whom I’ll deeply miss.”
Sarah Palin, who was McCain’s running mate during his 2008 bid for president, said the world had lost “an American original”, sharing a picture of herself with the man she called her friend.
President Trump, whom Mr McCain has strongly criticised, tweeted his “deepest sympathies” to Mr McCain’s family but made no comment about his life.
Barack Obama, the Democrat who beat Mr McCain to the presidency, said despite their differences, they shared “a fidelity to something higher – the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched and sacrificed.
“Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did,” Mr Obama said. “But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own.
“At John’s best, he showed us what that means.”
Former vice-president, long-time friend and political opponent Joe Biden said McCain’s “impact on America hasn’t ended”.
“John McCain’s life is proof that some truths are timeless,” he said in a statement. “Character. Courage. Integrity.
“A life lived embodying those truths casts a long, long shadow. John McCain will cast a long shadow.”
