The TOI correspondent from Washington: For weeks, official Washington has been bracing for legislative afterlife of Senate Republican titan Mitch McConnell, 84, whose deteriorating health had invited political obituaries. Instead, it was Senator Lindsey Graham,13 years younger and still actively crisscrossing the globe on diplomatic missions till recently, who died suddenly on Sunday at 71, stunning the Republican Party and reshaping the political landscape heading into the November mid-term elections.

The South Carolina senator’s office said the 71-year-old died after a “brief and sudden illness.”

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham died Saturday after a brief and unexpected illness, his office said in statement posted on social media.