It’s not looking good for the world’s most distinguished terrorist group

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NEED TO KNOW:

It seems like the Islamic State is at war with everybody and everything. This includes Al Qaeda, which has suffered losses of territory, recruits and prestige since its former subsidiary went rogue last year.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was eventually forced to cut ties with the Islamic State altogether, a surprisingly diplomatic move that seemed to underscore the degree that extremism and militancy has spread recently. The split also highlighted just how scary the Islamic State had become. For Al Qaeda, the Islamic State was too violent — that's saying something.

But Al Qaeda's decision to try to distance itself from the Islamic State meant that it was no longer a part of the winning team. And, according to a new report from The Guardian, the schism coupled with the Islamic State's rise has left Al Qaeda in tatters. Islamic State leaders called Al Qaeda a “drowned entity” in the latest issue of its propaganda magazine.

The Guardian interviewed two important spiritual leaders for Al Qaeda. Abu Qatada, a Jordanian preacher based in London until he was deported two years ago, said Zawahiri had become “isolated.” Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, whom The Guardian says is the most influential “jihadi” scholar alive, told the newspaper that Zawahiri is cut off from his commanders and operating on appeals to loyalty alone.

The Islamic State is not shy about its desire to be the top — and only — terrorist group around. It has attacked other extremist organizations as well. Last week Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan executed 10 members of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, the sudden fall of Al Qaeda has left a lot of analysts in the global intelligence community scrambling. Government agents who have spent entire careers studying Al Qaeda are probably a little disappointed that its star has fallen. “There’s such a cadre of people so closely tied to the Al Qaeda brand within the IC [intelligence community] that I think they don’t see what else is going on outside the organization,” one former intelligence officer told The Guardian.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State contnues to expand.

WANT TO KNOW:

Egypt is continuing its slow march back to pre-Arab Spring revolution authoritarianism. The counter-revolution feels nearly complete. Now the current government just needs to re-install Hosni Mubarak as some kind of figurehead monarch.

Rights groups say that in the last two months more than 160 Egyptians have been arrested. These aren't criminals, for the most part. These are activists. The thing they all have in common is that they oppose the current military-led government, which took power in a coup in 2013.

These are supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who was a democratically elected civilian president before he was ousted by generals. Or they are more secular political activists, who have made calls for their government to be more fair, more humane, to provide more freedom, more economic security, better services and infrastructure. These are not controversial demands.

It is so bad in Egypt at this point that the administration of US President Barack Obama actually sent a report to Congress harshly criticizing the human rights record of the Egyptian government, writes GlobalPost Senior Correspondent Laura Dean. It also, however, advised Congress to maintain current levels of military aid to the country. Talk about mixed messages.

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

Of course, all governments, no matter how established their democracy may be, could find themselves behaving like dictators sometimes. Take Britain, for instance. It recently passed a new law called the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act of 2015. This law, as you can guess, poses all sorts of threats to personal liberty and privacy.

For example: The new law says that UK schools play an important role in preventing the development of future terrorists. That role is not, as defined by the law, to provide a strong education that helps students think critically about the world. No — according to the law, the role of teachers and administrators is to “have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism."

“The act — you might argue — turns every British schoolchild into a potential terrorist. It also creates a new market for technologies that will help teachers spy on their little proto-jihadis,” writes GlobalPost's Timothy McGrath.

Entrepreneurial software companies are all over it. They are developing and providing technology to schools to help them monitor students. Written another way: private businesses are profiting off schools that are spending money to spy on children, instead of on books and things like that.

Think twice before you pass that note in class, kids. Someone, somewhere, will be watching.