My name is Carl Azuz.

Glad to be starting off the week with you.

Our first story concerns a conflict involving Armenia and Azerbaijan, two countries located in southwestern Asia.

They both won their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but even before that, they were fighting each other over a region that they both believed should be part of their territory.

The region is named Nagorno Karabakh.

It's located inside the borders of Azerbaijan, but most of the people who live there are ethnic Armenians.

Nagorno Karabakh declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991.

Since then, it's ruled itself with the support of Armenia.

But that country and Azerbaijan continued to fight over the region until a ceasefire was declared in 1994.

It was a shaky agreement.

It did calm down a lot of the clashes.

But it did not calm the tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

They have continued to grapple over the issue of Nagorno Karabakh.

Fighting flared up again between them on September 27th.

We don't know who's at fault.

Each side blames the other for shooting first, and it was the same thing over a truce they agreed to over a week ago.

Clashes followed, and both sides blamed each other.

Over the past few weeks, the region of Nagorno Karabakh says more than 700 members of its military have died in clashes with Azerbaijan.

Here's why all of this is internationally significant.

The nation of Russia supports Armenia.

The nation of Turkey supports Azerbaijan, so if the fighting continues, there are concerns that could eventually mean the involvement of two much larger countries.

The United Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United States have all called for Armenia and Azerbaijan to stop fighting immediately.

10 second trivia!

What is the fattest organ in the human body?

Is that the skin, the liver, the large intestine, or the brain?

Believe it or not, it's the brain that's about 60 percent fat, the fattiest organ we have.

According to two professors at the University of Central Florida, there is something available to practically everyone that can lower stress, reduce pain, help with symptoms of depression and improve our thinking and motor skills.

It's not a drug, it's music.

For years, CNN hero Carol Rosenstein has started bands to help people like her husband, who's battling Parkinson's disease and dementia.

Like a lot of CNN heroes, Rosenstein has found new ways to reach and help people, despite the restrictions related to coronavirus and her ongoing work is music to the ears of many senior citizens.

COVID just makes it doubly difficult for our seniors to sustain their levels of wellness because they've got so much isolation going on in their environments.

This isolation is bringing with it a huge toll because we as humans are so accustomed to togetherness, we are going to see people deteriorating faster.

People have declined much faster because they were, you know, for months and months in this very restricted environment.

A lot of people probably didn't realize what a disaster many areas would turn into.

Music is the language of the brain, it stirs up feelings, thinking processes, the motor system.

You have substantial hard science (scientific) evidence (on) how music can help the brain.

Some of the areas that musical memories are located aren't actually attacked by Alzheimer's disease, they're spared, they're preserved.

When people with severe memory disorders, when there is a musical memory trigger that can remember the music.

But they also remember usually some autobiographical other memories that are connected to this particular song.

And so there is a moment of memory of ... restoration, so they don't just remember the song.

They also remember, at least for a moment, where they are and who they are.

And so music can recreate some of the thinking, feeling and expression and movement experiences that we need.

Even if a spouse just sits down with a partner and says let's listen to music together, or we can sing together.

Or if the person who is afflicted by this neurological decline they can still play something, help him to play something.

[singing] All of me, why not take all of me

Or (you can) listen to a piece of music together, all these things help.

I can play music for somebody, and I still maintain social distance.

Music can travel, can bridge distances.

It's so important at this time to connect and to reach out to our seniors.

In some way, it's critical for everyone (to) feel the love that we are missing in person.

And to be able to do this safely at this time is imperative and one of the easiest ways, especially if you're living distances apart, is to use our internet and be able to reach out and speak to our loved ones so that they are reassured that they are not alone.

Thank you, everybody, for coming to our party today.

I am deeply honored.

Our last story today concerns protective face masks.

In some areas, there optional; in some, they're recommended; in some, they're the law.

But wherever people stand on wearing them, we've seen some pretty creative solutions out there, from the silly and somewhat scary, to designer masks that can run upwards of US$140.

But this is the first time we've heard of a scented one.

It's the smell that won't let sleeping dogs lie.

Bacon, bacon, where's the bacon?

It's on your face!

The Hormel Bacon folks figured what better scent in which to swaddle your nose.

-It's one of those foods that just truly makes everything better. -Even a pandemic?

They came up with what Hormel calls a "smell-licious" innovation.

The breathable bacon mask is now reality, though you have to win the right to wear one, enter for a chance to whiff.

A PR person who got one tweeted:

"This smells so good I'm considering wearing it all day, even though I have no plans to leave the house."

Someone else joked: "Accidentally nibbled a hole in my bacon-scented face mask."

"Don't eat bacon, inhale it" is the mask's motto.

It's not too overpowering.

Sure, there are plenty of novelty masks out there, from a dog's snout, to lips, to sharp teeth, to missing teeth, to a burger.

Someone even mocked up actual bacon into the shape of a mask, but none of those actually smell.

Similar to what you would see on scratch and sniff ...

So, we actually found an ink, um, that we could print on the back of these masks.

It smells just like our bacon.

Other companies, like Banana Republic, have made masks promoting themselves, but they didn't literally raise a stink.

The bacon mask reminds us of a short-lived invention from the 80s, the scent alarm clock that woke you up with a scent of bacon.

The pork aroma on the mask will start to dissipate after two or three washings.

Until then, keep the dog away from your face.

-Jeannie Moos, CNN, New York. -It's bacon!

If you think masks feel hot, that one sizzling, it's one way to be "bacon" up enthusiasm for something that could get you pork belly laughs whenever you wear it.

It'd be pretty piggish toe where it on a farm, though I don't know "sow" someone could be that "boar"-ish.

The animals might show at you and you really wouldn't be able to "swine" about it.

I'm Carlos Azuz, "hogging" up your day with pig puns on CNN 10.

Shout out to Cascade High School.

It is in Leavenworth, Washington, and that's the school picked from the subscriptions and comments we received at youtube.com/CNN10.