Five schools in Kenosha are going virtual this week over concerns for the safety of staff and students due to the schools’ proximity to the Kenosha County Courthouse.

These include Brass Elementary, Frank Elementary School, Harborside Academy, Reuther Central High School and Washington Middle School, reported ABC-affiliate WISN.

“While we have not been advised of any existing imminent danger, we feel this is the best course of action to protect our students and staff during an uncertain time. We will continue to work closely with law enforcement to receive support as needed in the days and weeks ahead,” said Kenosha Unified School District in a message to parents cited by the TV news station.

As the judge presiding over Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial came under scrutiny once again for allowing Mr Rittenhouse to pick the names of the six jurors, a defence attorney practicing in Kenosha court for 54 years said that this is how the judge normally conducts himself.

“It’s not just because it’s Kyle Rittenhouse, he does this in everybody’s case,” Terry Rose, told ABC affiliate WKOW.

“There is nothing wrong with it,” Mr Rose, said of judge Bruce Schroeder’s decision to allow Rittenhouse the draw the alternate jurors names out in his murder trial. “It does not tilt the case either way. When a defendant sticks his hand in the cylinder, pulls out a piece of paper, he can’t see what’s on that paper.”

Right-wing political commentator Dinesh D’Souza told Fox News on Wednesday that Kyle Rittenhouse’s homicide trial is being portrayed as “a kind of symbol of the Trump movement”.

“This isn’t just a trial about Rittenhouse,” he said. “In fact the prosecution early on was very eager to show him fraternising or associating with the Proud Boys.

“They wanted to try to make Rittenhouse a symbol for Trump’s America. By contrast, the rioters, the looters, the arsonists — this is Antifa. These are the people that the media has protected for a year.

“And if you were to read media accounts of this confrontation, you would never get a sense of who these people are or what these people were doing or the violence they were engaging in or the fact that they chased Kyle Rittenhouse and not the other way around.”

Claiming that assistant district attorney Thomas Binger is acting as “the apologist for the left-wing narrative,” D’Souza said: “They want to get Rittenhouse because they want him to be a stand-in, if you will, for the whole Make America Great Again movement.”

Conservative shock jock Jesse Kelly went on a bizarre rant about “man-hating feminists” running the country on Wednesday’s edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Arguing that the prosecution believes Kyle Rittenhouse “should not have stopped the street animals from burning down Kenosha”, Kelly said: “They believe they have a right before God, their communist God, to burn this country down.”

He was responding to Carlson, who asked Kelly, whether “you don’t have a right to protect your own life?”

“That’s the take-away they’re going to get from it, Tucker, because it’s their entire world view,” said Kelly.

“It’s hard for Americans to accept, it’s hard for me to accept where we are as a country. Where we are is people in positions of power now, they’re the crazed nut job that used to be on the street corner protesting, the man-hating feminist who used to hide in her apartment hammering Nutter Butters. These people are now CEOs, they’re district attorneys, they’re senators, they’re presidents, and that’s why you see this.”

“They genuinely believe Kyle Rittenhouse should not have stopped the street animals from burning down Kenosha, or any other city. They believe they have a right before God, their communist God, to burn this country down.”

“I love Nutter Butters,” responded Carlson. “I am sorry to say that. I am not defending feminism in any way but I can’t resist.

“So what’s our reaction to this,” asked Carlson. “You gotta think that the people watching this trial, no matter what the outcome is, will conclude you really can’t defend yourself in the country. Like, how could you?”

“I don’t think people want to hear what we have to do Tucker,” responded Kelly. “Because what we have to do is get out of Blue areas. You are not safe in area that is blue now in this country,” he said apparently referring to the states with Democrats in power.

“Not because of street mobs either because of exactly what you are seeing here. Because the people who have the power to ruin your life will throw you in a dark hole forever, they are now in positions where they can make that happen.”

He advised the Americans to get “to a red area, become an activist, run for DA, run for school board. Make it redder.”

“We are not in the year 2000, we are not even in the year 2010. These people are now desperate and are lashing out and they are going to hurt a lot of people on the right before they are gone.”

ICYMI: As the nation’s eyes are glued to the televised double homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, broadcast widely across news networks and streamed online by media outlets, viewers have scrutinised the judge presiding over the high-profile case, which has touched on issues of white vigilantism, racial justice protests and the criminal justice system itself.

Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder is Wisconsin’s longest-service active trial judge who, at 75 years old, has said that he has tried more homicide cases than any judge in the state.

ICYMI: Over two weeks, jurors in the homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse watched more than a dozen pieces of video, including livestreams, body camera footage, aerial video from the FBI, and an interview Mr Rittenhouse gave moments before he killed two people and injured another man in the aftermath of police brutality protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.

They also heard testimony from police, people who witnessed the shootings, the man who survived a gunshot from Mr Rittenhouse’s AR-15-style rifle, and Mr Rittenhouse himself.

Alex Woodward has the details.

Florida Republican representative Matt Gaetz on Wednesday said he might reach out to Kyle Rittenhouse to hire him as a congressional intern.

“He is not guilty,” declared the conservative lawmaker while speaking to Newsmax. “He deserves a not guilty verdict, and I sure hope he gets it because you know what? Kyle Rittenhouse would probably make a pretty good congressional intern. We may reach out to him and see if he’d be interested in helping the country in additional ways.”

The anchor Grant Stinchfield responded saying that he “wants him here at Newsmax”.

“So maybe we’ll have to fight for him,” said the anchor. “I want him here at Newsmax. Maybe he can be a Stinchfield intern too.”

“You guys pay way better at Newsmax,” replied Mr Gaetz. “But there’s nothing like the Hill.”

A jury is deliberating on the verdict in the double homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men and injured another in the aftermath of protests against police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year, and will consider a range of charges against him.

Throughout the two-week trial, jurors reviewed more than a dozen pieces of video, including livestreams from that night, an interview Mr Rittenhouse gave moments before he fired his gun, body camera footage, and aerial video from the FBI.

The rally against injustice that took place that night was organised in solidarity with a local Black man, Jacob Blake, who had been shot and left paralysed by a white police officer two days earlier following a confrontation after his SUV was stopped.

Joe Sommerlad has the story.

A jury will return to the Kenosha County Courthouse on Thursday morning for a third day of deliberations.

Here is what they will be considering following two weeks of testimony in the trial.