1-bromo-2-fluorobenzene reaction with magnesium and furan
The overall pathway described is shown below. Treatment of the aryl bromide with magnesium gives a Grignard, which is equivalent to a carbanion. The carbanion can eliminate fluoride to give benzyne. Being highly strained, benzyne is a fantastic dienophile and reacts with furan through a Diels-Alder reaction.



Most of the techniques to generate benzyne use the same strategy: generate a carbanion next to a leaving group. The classic method taught in introductory organic chemistry is by deprotonation of an aryl halide with a very strong base (sodium amide), which eliminates the halide. The strategy shown here generates the carbanion using the milder method of forming a Grignard.

The elimination is possible because carbanions are very good at kicking out leaving groups. It's commonly taught that fluoride is a poor leaving group, but the end of that sentence is that it's a poor leaving group for SN2 reaction or compared to chloride, bromide, and iodide. Later, it's taught that enolates (a reasonably stable class of carbanions) are reactive enough to eliminate alkoxides/hydroxide. So it makes sense that an unstabilized carbanion as here should be able to kick out a relatively poor (but not that terrible) leaving group.

The Stoltz group has a nice summary of benzyne's history, generation, and reactivity.