Electrophilic Substitution with Ceric Ammonium Nitrate and Lithium Bromide as reagents
First of all, the linked paper clearly points out the following:

Hint: In second step (A $\rightarrow$ B), combination of lithium bromide and cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate (CAN) is used as a brominating reagent

From a problem solving perspective, this step is trivial for someone who has read the problem well (not me, unfortunately :)

Ceric Ammonium Nitrate is a very strong oxidizing agent and has the ability of oxidizing benzene compounds first to Nitrobenzene, then to quinone or quinoid derivatives1. Assuming this line of reasoning works, the quinoid derivative could then undergo nucleophilic addition with $\ce{LiBr}$, followed by workup with acid to give the p-subsituted benzene derivative. This could be a probable reaction mechanism, if the substitutent was $\ce{-OH}$ instead of $\ce{-OMe}$ and if an acid workup step was involved. Also, this mechanism can give the unwanted product 4-bromo-3-isopropylphenol, as shown below:

However, this reaction mechanism is very speculative, and it also won't hold good here, because the substituent is $\ce{-OMe}$. Some further research on the links provided in the comments2 yielded the following results:

Alkyl aromatics were brominated in the side chain using sodium bromide and CAN. Asakura et al. reported bromination of C-5 of uracil nucleosides using CAN and lithium bromide in acetonitrile.

This is also the reaction present in (3), which seems to have been lifted without a citation to Asakura et al.



Finally, Asakura et al. 4 provides a suitable mechanism for this reaction, which I correctly assumed arose from the oxidation of $\ce{Br-}$ to $\ce{Br2}$, and then to $\ce{Br+}$



References:

Nikishin, G. I., et al. “Reaction of Aromatic Hydrocarbons with Cerium Ammonium Nitrate.” Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Division of Chemical Science, vol. 24, no. 6, June 1975, pp. 1328–29. doi:10.1007/BF00922077.
Nair, Vijay, and Ani Deepthi. “Cerium(IV) Ammonium NitrateA Versatile Single-Electron Oxidant.” Chemical Reviews, vol. 107, no. 5, May 2007, pp. 1862–91. doi:10.1021/cr068408n.
Cerium (IV) Ammonium Nitrate mediated oxidative transformations of diaryl methylenecyclopropanes. Shodhganga link
Asakura, Junichi, and Morris J. Robins. “Cerium(IV)-Mediated Halogenation at C-5 of Uracil Derivatives.” The Journal of Organic Chemistry, vol. 55, no. 16, Aug. 1990, pp. 4928–33. doi:10.1021/jo00303a033.