This year's U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders came on the heels of another event that reverberated internationally — the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, followed by both an outpouring of tributes and sometimes bitter reflection on the colonialist empire that came to an end during her seven decades on the throne.
There were also some questions about whether the loss of the long-reigning monarch might affect the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 56 nations that, in many cases, have historic and linguistic ties to Britain. Fourteen of them are Commonwealth “realms” — former colonies where the British monarch, now King Charles III, remains the head of state.
